


Rewound

by Sakhyu



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Gen, Past Character Death, Tsuna!Giotto, a lot of it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-05-26 17:24:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 41,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6248857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sakhyu/pseuds/Sakhyu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They called him Neo Vongola Primo, the second coming of the esteemed First. Tsuna doesn't really think people meant it like this. <br/>.<br/>.<br/>.<br/><i>In which Vongola Decimo Tsuna wakes up as a blond, five year-old orphan named Giotto.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. prologue and chapter i

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by some Naruto fics where Naruto woke up as Minato, haha. I've always wondered why Giotto looked so similar to Tsuna.
> 
> Disclaimer: Katekyo Hitman Reborn belongs to Akira Amano. 'Nuff said.
> 
> Beta'd by: Mitskicchi

  **{prologue}**

* * *

.

.

.

_Someone was screaming._

_Despite that, however, he could still hear his companion's words._

_"N-Ngh . . . Tenth," Choking gasps of pain echoed into the stale air. Green eyes, tainted with dark despair, stared pleadingly. "A-Agh . . . Tenth ―no, Tsuna, please . . . you have to go."_

_And then the gasps were no more, and he was left to stare unseeingly with questions still burning on the the tip of his tongue._

_Go. Go where?_

_Everything was painted with shades of red. Even his companion's beautiful silver hair and pale skin . . . blood red stained his chest and his lips like a blossoming rose._

_The others had been the same too. Cold, porcelain dolls, covered in red roses and red vines . . ._

_No._

No.

_It wasn't supposed to be like this._

_Come heaven or hell, they were supposed to be together, no matter what._

_But why did this happen instead?_

_Why?_

_Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywh―_

― _Oh. The one who had been screaming was_ him.

 

* * *

And then Tsuna woke up.

.

.

.

But . . . Tsuna wasn't really _Tsuna_ anymore.

* * *

  **{chapter i}**

* * *

He was wrenched from his sleep to see the blinding sun . . . and hear a blood-curdling scream that was abruptly cut short.

Bolting up from his bed, the uneasy feeling of his already-fading nightmare _tripled_ , and immediately Tsuna was rushing out of his bedroom―

―Before he stopped short and just _stared._

A beautiful lady with dazzling blonde hair lay limply at the bottom of the stairs. Her limbs were bent in ways that was not natural, like a broken doll's or a puppet who had its strings cut. Copious amounts of blood oozed out of her mouth like dribbling red lipstick.

But what had been most glaring in this picture was how her neck was twisted gruesomely, blood spurting out of her nape in a ghastly imitation of a fountain.

Tsuna breathed in slowly, immediately regretting it as he smelled the heavy coppery scent in the air. This person was dead. It was clear that she had taken a nasty fall from the top of the stairs, breaking her neck in the process. She was just one of the many people whose life was cut before her time.

. . .

Tsuna ignored the slight pang in his heart.

(It was only then, as Tsuna made his way to the lady, did Tsuna realize that his limbs were much smaller than they had been before.)

* * *

 "O-Oh God." Someone gasped out in Italian.

Hurried steps. A gentle hand on his arm as the person led Tsuna away from her.

. . . No, not 'her'. The body. Because the beautiful lady ―was _dead._

"She must have tumbled down the stairs . . . Giotto, are you alright?"

_Who?_

". . . Giotto?"

_Who? Who are you calling for?_

Soft murmurs. Pitying looks. _Shock_ , the person said. _He forgot everything, a mechanism to alleviate the pain, perhaps?_

_No, no, I really don't know. I'm not Giotto!_

They sat down and the person and Tsuna talked. Turns out, Tsuna and that lady ―who was apparently his _mother_ ― had graciously offered their house for the person, a traveller, to spend the night.

"I'm sorry Giotto . . . I don't know much. All I know about you is from the small talk I had with your mother yesterday."

 _No! Not my mother! Not my mother! My mother was_ Nana!

"D-Do you want to come with me, Giotto? I'm travelling to the next town, but I can drop you off at their church . . . they take in orphans."

_Orphans._

He was orphaned.

Tsuna adamantly refused.

* * *

 The person helped Tsuna bury the woman, his _mother-but-not_ , before leaving.

Tsuna didn't shed a single tear, even as he lowered a single white rose onto the fresh grave.

("Here," They handed him a lovely white ring with a pretty blue jewel.

"What's this?" He asked.

"Your mother's wedding ring."

.

.

.

_That woman was not my mother._

.

.

.

The ring was threaded with string and stayed snugly on Tsuna's chest.)

* * *

His name was Giotto.

He was five.

He had golden tresses ― _just like the broken lady's_ ― instead of his usual brown.

His eyes were no longer chocolate-coloured but was now a shade of light orange.

.

.

.

His name was _Giotto._

Giotto.

How many Giottos could there be? This wasn't something Tsuna could just brush off. When you become the boss to the largest Mafia Family in the world, believing in coincidences was something you no longer had the privilege to do.

In any case, somehow Tsuna travelled about two hundred years back in time . . . which, granted, wasn't that bizarre when you have both Spanner and Shoichi Irie under your roof―

― _But_ , he had ended up in the body of one Vongola Primo.

. . . Okay, now _that_ was more than a bit weird. As far as Tsuna knew, nobody had invented something that could make you switch _bodies_ yet.

And that brought the once-brunet to yet another problem.

Because . . . Tsuna _couldn't_ remember how the heck he got there. The last thing he could remember was being with his Guardians―

. . .

Wait. That wasn't right. Hadn't he been doing paperwork with Hayato? . . . Or was he holding that meeting with Reborn?

. . .

The unsettling feeling in Tsuna's chest grew stronger as tendrils of fear snaked through his body.

Something was wrong. Tsuna _couldn't remember_.

 

* * *

_**three weeks, two days** _

* * *

Casually, casually, casually . . .

His head was held confidently but not enough to attract attention as he walked forward. He was discreet but looked like he _belong_. He blended into the shadows and walked as if he was made out of darkness.

And then . . . ever so slowly, his hand inched forward and casually snatched two loaves of bread off a counter.

Nobody, not even the baker manning the stand, noticed.

"Bread, check."

Tsuna exhaled quietly as he stuffed the bread into the bag he had bought with him that day. It was already full of tomatoes and lettuce, with some other assorted fruits. Tsuna had quite a big haul that day.

His current home was this quaint little cottage about an hour to two hours' walk from the nearest town. Tsuna had spent the first week cooped up in there, barely eating or drinking anything as he completely _freaked out_.

And then, divine intervention occurred.

Er, kind of. On day eight of his stay in the past, Tsuna had a dream (or maybe it was a nightmare?) where Reborn repeatedly hit him with his green Leon-hammer and called him a No-Good boss who couldn't even feed himself properly.

. . . Uh huh. That had been enough to snap Tsuna out of his self-induced fast and fix himself a proper meal.

Luckily for Tsuna, his . . . _mother_ had stocked up on some food before she had died. Tsuna was able to spend a whole week living off of that before he had eventually ran out. During that time, Tsuna carefully scouted his surroundings, managing to locate the towns that were closest to his home.

And then came the next part.

Okay, their house had _some_ money, stashed away in a pot in the kitchen (paranoid much?). There was enough to buy food, that was for sure. But Tsuna didn't know if he would need the money later on. In any world, any universe, money held some power.

However, there was still the problem of needing food . . .

Granted, Tsuna knew that stealing was bad. You were taking away profits from a family who spent time and hard work to obtain the food. From a young age, children were taught that it just wasn't ethical.

But, Tsuna _needed_ food.

Tsuna, or rather, Giotto, was five. The fruits and vegetables with seeds he had picked up would eventually be saved to grow his own crops. As of now, however, it was either steal . . . or starve painfully and slowly to death. Even his money wouldn't last forever if he didn't have a job, and really, let's be honest: who would hire a five-year old?

. . . And honestly, Tsuna had done much more unethical things as Vongola Decimo. Stealing wasn't even going to make it onto his list of sins.

Luckily (?) for him, however, Reborn's training had _some_ effect on him. Now, when Tsuna was super focused, none of his No-Good Tsuna personality showed through. In fact, focused-Tsuna could even be compared with a ballerina; that was how graceful he was. With his crash course in stealing (Reborn had taught him everything, even things that Tsuna had never thought he would need . . . though Tsuna must admit that his teachings were rather helpful now), Tsuna's first attempt at the dark art had gone without a hitch.

It had almost felt as if it had been too easy.

Currently, Tsuna was onto his second food run. With enough food to last him another week, Tsuna started to make his way out of the town. He had to leave before the sun set or risk walking home in the darkness.

The town he was in was rather peaceful and normal. Orphans ― _street urchins_ , his mind supplied― had turf wars in the alleyways and bright lit stands filled the streets. Mothers walked by holding the hands of their precious children while business men hurried along with their canes tapping the stone ground. It was a quiet town, but nice and peaceful.

"YE ROTTING THIEF! GET BACK HERE!"

And that was exactly why Tsuna jumped a foot in the air when an ear-shattering bellow rang through the street. For one, panic-filled moment, Tsuna was afraid that the yell had been directed at him.

But then his rationality took over―

(Nobody noticed when he stole things right under their noses, they will not notice now . . . )

―And Tsuna ducked neatly into the alley beside him to get out of the way and observe the scene from a bystander's view.

A commotion was happening a bit farther ahead on the street. People were backing off as a . . . red blur passed them? Blinking in surprise, Tsuna leaned out for a better look―

"HAH! TRY CATCHING ME OLD MAN!"

―And felt as if an icy hand had grabbed his heart and squeezed. A child, perhaps a one or two years older than his current physical age, was hurtling down the street whilst clutching a loaf of bread to his chest. Wine-red hair, leaning towards pink ― _the exact shade of his right hand's hair as he pleaded for him to leave_ ― was styled in that ridiculous octopus-like manner. Reddish brown eyes glinting in determination and anger. His skin, clearly a type that burnt easily in the sun, gleamed in the light as sweat droplets rolled off from the velocity of his speed.

The familiar aura. The familiar facial features. The familiar scowl.

No tattoo marred his face yet, but Tsuna would have to be blind to not recognize who this person.

_G. The First Storm Guardian of Vongola. Primo's Loyal Right Hand._

.

.

.

His Hayato's _replacement_. Or . . . would it now be the other way around?

_No, no, no! Hayato was never a replacement for G. Hayato was Hayato!_

The thoughts in his head felt as bitter as the taste in his mouth.

* * *

_**three weeks, six days** _

* * *

If anything, Tsuna had adjusted to his new life. Well, he adjusted to it to the best of his capabilities, in the very least. He no longer jumped at the shadows that grew during the day. He no longer tried to fill the uncharacteristic silence of his home with his own voice. He no longer faltered at the particularly red stain at the bottom of the stairs.

Thus, Tsuna deemed himself ready to explore his (new?) home.

Armed with a broom (he was going to clean as he looked for valuables), Tsuna began his adventure. In a way, this wouldn't have been the first time Tsuna turned the house upside-down. He had turned the kitchen upside-down during his second week, to look for food. Now, however, Tsuna was going to search all the other rooms.

His own room was a tiny place. In fact, it could even be compared to the janitor's closet back in his middle school. A small drawer was set beside his small bed, and a dusty and old lamp was placed on top of it. The drawer seemed to hold what little clothes Tsuna owned.

Beside Tsuna's room was his mother's. Tsuna crept into it cautiously, muttering a prayer as he did so for the poor woman that had died with no meaning.

It was slightly bigger than his own room. There was a closet pushed to one wall and a bed claimed the other. Moving towards the closet, Tsuna dusted the floor before opening it.

"Whoa . . ."

Exotic dresses is what first filled Tsuna's eyes. Tsuna bit his lips in confusion. A light touch on the closest dress confirmed his suspicions: velvet.

Real velvet. The real, _expensive_ kind.

. . . Why did Tsuna's so-called mother own such expensive clothing? And their house. Why did Tsuna's mother buy a house so far away from the town? On another note, how did she even build a house there in the first place?

Shifting the clothes away, Tsuna delved deeper into the closet to find two wooden chests. Tsuna caressed one gently, feeling the old wood and the grooves under his hand. Carefully fingering the metal clasp, Tsuna opened the chest and gasped in surprise.

Glittering jewels and glinting metal.

The box was filled with jewellery. Like the dresses before, Tsuna quickly confirmed that they were all real.

. . .

Who had Tsuna's, no, uh, _Giotto's_ mother been?

Closing the chest carefully (well, at least Tsuna knows where he could get more money if he needed it), Tsuna grabbed the other one and opened it as well. This one, however, did not contain priceless objects.

In fact, what was inside might have been even more valuable to Tsuna. It contained a stack of yellowing letters.

Tsuna smiled for the first time he found himself in the body of his great-great-great-etc grandfather. Finally, he could get some much-needed answers.

* * *

. . .

Wow.

Tsuna's ancestor seemed to have much more in common with his right hand than Tsuna had originally thought.

After all, who would have thought that Giotto, the esteemed Vongola Primo, was an illegitimate child?

Giotto's mother seemed to be a wealthy noble. His father, on the other hand, was apparently a peasant.

According to the love letters (gag), the two had met when his mother had gotten lost in the forest when she ran away from her (and Tsuna quotes) 'stupid, worthless, interfering guards'. They had swiftly fallen in love at first sight, and everything in the letters were written as though they followed the most cheesiest fairytale ever.

And then Tsu― _Giotto's_ parents' story took a darker turn. Or at least it did in the tear-stained papers of his mother's diary. What continued was a series of events that eventually led to a tragedy.

The lady became pregnant. Her father found out. He sent assassins to kill Giotto's father. They succeeded. And then, to top it off, Giotto's mother was disowned.

Even if he never knew them, Tsuna felt his heart breaking for the poor lovers who had been brutally ripped apart. How hard had it been for Giotto's mother, to take care of a child when she had been raised with so many servants? How hard would it have been for Giotto's mother to raise a child when she herself was still breaking from her lost love?

Tsuna frowned. His mother's grave needed some new flowers . . .

* * *

_**four weeks, two days** _

* * *

Keeping track of time was hard, in a way. Without meetings and school and a definite schedule, each day blurred into the next.

Tsuna kept track of time with the little journal he had found in his cottage as he looked through everything. He made a tally everyday in the journal with the feather pen and ink he had found in the spare bedroom.

Thirty tiny scratches.

Not for the first time, Tsuna wondered how long he would stay there. And then he wondered if he would ever be able to go back . . .

_Screaming, screaming, screaming―_

―But really, did Tsuna even have anything to go back to?

* * *

_**four weeks, five days** _

* * *

Tsuna saw him again. His chibified Right Hand look-alike.

Tsuna was on his third food run when he saw the pink-head rushing down the street again. Quickly stepping to the side to avoid been trampled by the running thief (poor guy, he didn't learn how to steal properly yet), Tsuna watched as the boy gave him a quick glance.

Their eyes had met.

. . .

Tsuna tried to tell himself that it was natural for for there to be no recognition in the older child's gaze.

* * *

_**five weeks, one day** _

* * *

Tsuna could feel his jaw dropping open in surprise.

What the _heck_.

Uh, okay, backtracking since you would need some background information to make sense of everything. Tsuna's little hut was actually quite big, despite Tsuna continuously calling it 'little' and a 'hut'. The top floor had three rooms, Tsuna's little closet/bedroom, his mother's bedroom, and a guest room. The lower floor had a living room and a kitchen.

Tsuna had been in the living room for once, dusting the floors when his Intuition acted up. It was then did Tsuna realize that his footsteps on the floor sounded mostly hollow, but at the centre it sounded different.

Tsuna immediately came to the conclusion that something was hidden underneath the wooden planks.

Armed with the sharp end of his shovel ―that was used to dig his mother's grave, _no no, don't think about that_ ― Tsuna began to slowly remove some of the planks that sounded different when he walked on them.

What he found underneath was truly surprising.

Five knives. Three swords. Two _guns._

It seemed that his beautiful _mommy_ was more than a pretty little wallflower.

A few minutes later, the floor planks were replaced (to the best of his ability, geez, Tsuna wasn't a carpenter!) and the hidden weaponry was placed in the kitchen. Tsuna began to study them carefully.

Ever since he was blasted into the past, Tsuna had continuously forgotten that he was in an era two _hundred_ years before his own. But now, it felt as though the fact had slapped him in the face.

The guns. They were _dinosaurs_ compared to what Tsuna was used to. One gun was small and made partly out of wood. The metal parts were rusted and the bullets were slightly misshapen. It screamed _old_ like no tomorrow. The other gun was completely made out of rusting metal. It looked only slightly newer than the wooden gun, but the levers and everything still looked ridiculously ancient.

The age of the knifes and swords weren't as glaring as the guns. After all, they didn't change much even two hundred years in the future. Other than the dullness of the blades and the slight rust, they looked to be in good condition.

Tsuna picked up a knife and eyed it thoughtfully. This was really a quite pleasant surprise.

Tsuna didn't have any Dying Will bullets or even his pills/mittens with him. His flames . . . thankfully, Tsuna could still feel wisps of it since he knew what to search for (unlike when he had been a younger Tsuna and his flames were locked away), or else he would really be freaking out.

However, that still brought Tsuna back to the fact that he was essentially helpless. Most of the fighting styles he knew relied on his flames, and the few that didn't weren't applicable with his current five year-old body.

It was a small blessing that his Hyper Intuition seemed to still work.

Tsuna paused, contemplative. Actually, how _did_ Giotto get his flames and Hyper Intuition? Everyone had once said that Tsuna had possessed the Vongola blood that came from Giotto. But where did Giotto get that blood? Genetic mutation? His non-existent parents?

Shaking his head, Tsuna went back to inspecting his weapons. Reborn had briefly instructed Tsuna on fighting with various types of weapons, despite his calling as a hand-to-hand and flame fighter. He had been better at using guns than knifes and/or swords (like teacher like student? Reborn did rub off on him) but now . . .

Tsuna picked up the metal gun and winced. How was he suppose to use these ancient things? There wasn't a silencer, and . . . was there even a safety?

. . .

Yeah. Maybe Tsuna should go with a knife. Small, easy to hide on his body, and his second best weapon after guns.

(Despite Takeshi's enthusiasm and pro-ness at swordplay, Tsuna was terrible at it even after he was tutored by the best. He had always felt as if the long swords threw off his balance.)

But really, finding the weapons took a huge burden off of Tsuna's shoulders. He had been painfully aware of how vulnerable his position was: no flames, no ability to fight, no one to cover his back . . . Tsuna had long been thinking about investing in a weapon.

However, even with his awesome skills as a thief, Tsuna wasn't all too confident that he would be able to steal from a weapons' merchant. After all, usually those people had more than a few inklings about what they were selling. Unlike the regular fruit vendors or bakers, these people usually tended to be trained.

That brought Tsuna to think about buying a weapon. But he really hadn't wanted to give up that much money . . .

So, finding these weapons was quite nice. There were even some maintenance things hidden along with the weapons, such as oil and sharpening tools.

After inspecting the knives, Tsuna picked out his favourite one and started to sharpening it. He'll have to dedicate some time from his (admittedly open) schedule to learn how to fight with them again . . .

* * *

_**five weeks, five days** _

* * *

Tsuna crept stealthily through the forest foliage.

Instead of going to the town this week (and no, it was totally not because Tsuna wanted to avoid a certain pink-head . . . ), Tsuna decided to improve his survival skills. Armed with his knife and some rope, Tsuna crouched down to make another trap.

The days were starting to get steadily chilly. Tsuna didn't have much clothes that would be able to withstand the cold for long periods of time. Soon, stealing food in the town wouldn't be a viable option if Tsuna didn't want to get severe frostbite.

That was why Tsuna was hunting in the forest. His house was surrounded by the forest (for more security, perhaps?), which made it easy for Tsuna to hunt some game. Looking for edible mushrooms, berries, and other greens were quite easy too, though Tsuna was a bit more hesitant in doing that.

After all, he was two hundred years in the past. Many foods he knew in his day had evolved. Who knew if some berries that were edible in his time turned out to be poisonous now?

All the fruits he had stolen were dried out to last longer. The game that he caught (ah, it felt as if it had been forever since he had meat ―hey, stealing blood-dripping fresh meat was harder than you think, okay!?) were dried out as well and kept in the small cellar in the kitchen.

Tsuna picked a few black berries, trying to figure out if they were blueberries or if they were nightshade berries. Giving one crushed berry a cautious whiff, Tsuna nodded in confirmation. _Nightshade_.

Looking at the rest of the nightshade berries he picked, Tsuna frowned and decided to keep them. After all, belladona nightshade was great to make various poisons. And his throwing knives could use something to spice them up . . .

Oh! A crash a few meters away from Tsuna made the boy look up in surprise. It seemed that something got into his animal trap number five . . .

* * *

_**six weeks, two days** _

* * *

Lean over.

Stab right.

Pivot (wobbly) on left foot.

Throw arm with knife in an arc.

Tsuna sighed as he sheathed his knife (which was really tuning out to be like a dagger for tiny Tsuna) and grabbed a drink of water. He was trying to practice some katas that he remembered, but with the addition of a dagger. It really wasn't working. Tsuna needed to find another fighting style to suit him right now, because his reach was way too short and he didn't even have enough strength to do some damage.

Tsuna eyed the two guns that he set aside. Perhaps he really needed to learn how to use them . . .

* * *

_**six weeks, six days** _

* * *

The days were getting increasingly colder and Tsuna knew that soon, he wouldn't be able to make the trip to the town any more (or at least until winter gave away to spring).

Bundling himself up in the warmest clothes he could find and many layers, Tsuna set out to go to the town one last time. One hour later of speed walking later, and Tsuna finally found himself at his destination.

This time, Tsuna carefully stole everything he would need to last the winter. Fruits that last the longest when dried, tea leaves and herbs that helped with different types of sicknesses . . . Tsuna even managed to grab some thick cloth that could be used to turn into winter clothing.

Some dried chicken meat and chocolate (hey! No judging, Tsuna hadn't had chocolate in forever!) later, Tsuna and his big bundle was finally ready for the trip home. However, Tsuna hesitated slightly at the town entrance.

He hadn't seen G all day. Had G left the town? Found some shelter? Just didn't want to come out that day? Even if Tsuna had wanted to avoid him ―too many _memories, memories, memories_ ― not seeing the boy run around and cause havoc was causing Tsuna to worry. Even without meeting the boy, Primo's Right Hand already had a place within Tsuna's heart.

. . .

He bit his lip before shaking his head to clear his thoughts. Tsuna didn't see G the first time he ventured out to the Town. It wouldn't be surprising for him to miss the pink-head again.

But . . . Tsuna had wanted to see him one more time before winter came . . .

* * *

_**seven weeks, three days** _

* * *

His food supply was completely ready. Tsuna had stocked enough food to last three people in his little hut. He was still trying to get more, however, just in case something happened. That was totally why Tsuna was at the river that was in the forest, trying to fish.

Fish could be eaten fresh or dried. Tsuna didn't really have a lot of meat, only the dried chicken he had shoplifted and a deer he had caught within his trap. Fish would be good protein and if Tsuna somehow managed to run out of food, he could still go ice-fishing.

But ice-fishing was a lot harder than normal fishing, so that was why Tsuna was trying to catch fish before the river froze over. He had found an old fishing rod and pail and had brought along a book to read as he waited.

. . . For once, Tsuna was glad that Reborn made him learn Italian. At least he wouldn't be immensely bored.

* * *

_**seven weeks, seven days** _

* * *

". . . Ouch." Tsuna muttered as he probed the tender blisters on his hand.

There had been some firewood in his house, but Tsuna quickly deduced that it wouldn't be enough to last the whole winter. With that conclusion, the little boy had no choice but to take an axe that was conveniently found beside the stacks of firewood he already had (thank god he didn't have to steal an axe), and go to the forest to chop up some trees.

It was a slow business, where many times Tsuna felt as though he was closer to chopping off his own head than a tree, but eventually he cut down two small trees to turn into firewood. After chopping them up into smaller blocks of wood, Tsuna spent the rest of the day going back and forth to transport the wood back to his place.

It was slow, slow work.

As he dragged the last of the wood back to his hut, Tsuna laid them down in the dying sunlight to dry them out. Thankfully, it hadn't started snowing yet, but Tsuna had no delusions that it wouldn't start snowing soon. In all honesty, Tsuna should have went and gathered firewood earlier instead of food. Food wouldn't be helpful if you slowly froze to death, after all.

Tsuna yawned. Time to take care of his blisters and go take a well-deserved nap . . .

* * *

_**eight weeks, four days** _

* * *

It had been two days since it snowed like a blizzard. Everyone were probably celebrating inside the comforts of their homes. After all, it had been a few days after Christmas, and now it was the day before the new year. Tsuna had even planned on treating himself with some hot chocolate.

However . . .

Tsuna's Hyper Intuition had been acting up for the whole night. The little boy didn't manage to get a single wink of sleep. Tiredly shuffling downstairs to make breakfast, Tsuna froze as the unsettling feeling his Intuition had been feeding him _sky-rocketed._

Tsuna gasped and held onto the edge of the table. There was something wrong . . . there was something wrong _outside_.

Dashing to his door ―only barely managing to throw on a coat― Tsuna rushed out into the forest and let his Intuition guide him to his needed destination. None of the surroundings mattered to him, nor did the sticks and rocks that poked his body as he flew by. There was something so, _so_ wrong, and Tsuna had to be there―

A gasp was wrenched out of his throat as Tsuna suddenly skid to a stop, taking in the scene before him.

"No!"

A small body laid crumpled on the ground. Snow covered his pinkish red hair and the rest of his shivering body. His skin was tinted a pale blue, and multiple red and purple bruises littered it.

His chest was barely moving.

Finally getting his frozen, locked limbs to move, Tsuna dove beside G as he desperately checked for a pulse. A weak, fluttering beat greeted him and Tsuna could feel his panic levels rise even more.

_No. No. Not G. Not Hayato. Not G._

He took off his own coat and bundled the freezing boy in it. Quivering green eyes and red red red flashed through Tsuna's mind as he hugged his precious cargo and made his way back home.

_Not him, please._

* * *

**{chapter i end}**


	2. chapter ii

****{chapter ii}** **

* * *

_In a different universe, Giotto would have accepted the traveller's offer and followed him to the nearby church._

_In a different universe, Giotto would have met G three years after his mother died, when he finally became fed up with the abuse he received from his fellow orphans and ran away._

_In a different universe, it was G who had saved a seriously sick Giotto and painstakingly nursed the younger back to health, forever cementing his mother-henning personality and over-protectiveness for the blonde―_

.

.

.

_―Uh, actually, no. G had always been a mother-hen and thus, had always became extremely protective of Giotto no matter what world they were in._

* * *

**_eight weeks, four days_ **

* * *

 

 

Tsuna panted heavily, his breaths misting into visible white puffs as he continued to drag the unconscious pinkette back to his home.

It wasn't actually too hard, to be honest. Although Tsuna could feel the dulled (from his adrenaline high) strain on his arms and legs, that was supposed to be quite natural as G was at least a good head taller than Tsuna himself.

However, despite their big height differences, G was light.

. . .

Way too light for someone who was supposed to be a growing boy. Tsuna could feel frustrated tears prick the edges of his eyes at the many implications that fact brought to light.

"M-Mmph . . . "

G whimpered softly when Tsuna jostled him as he once again stumbled over a tree root, just barely catching himself from face-planting with his charge. Unfortunately it seemed that No-Good Tsuna was making an appearance once more, though it was hardly shocking with how unemotionally balanced Tsuna felt.

Whipping his head around, Tsuna took one look at the older child and felt his heart clench in painful anguish. White snow crystals clung to G's pale, blue-tinted body like a second skin and unsurprisingly, the boy was still shivering uncontrollably.

― _His delicate, red-drenched piano hands were shaking shaking shaking even as green eyes tried to comfort him-_ him! _As if it was him who was fading away―_

_STOP!_

Tsuna suddenly stiffened in uncontrollable fear. What would happen if . . . if Tsuna had been too late? He had completely ignored (Reborn would have used him for target practice if only he knew, and that thought shouldn't have made the lump in Tsuna's throat feel even harder to swallow) the uneasy feelings of his Hyper Intuition for the whole night. The _whole_ night.

. . . What would happen if G died? If Primo's precious Right Hand was no more?

A quickly cooling tear traced a curve down Tsuna's face as the boy felt his heart race. His breaths created more mini clouds ― _bloody tonfas bloody tonfas no stop don'tthinkplease_ ― and Tsuna began to forget how to breathe as he seemed to be unable to take in the air he needed―

Suddenly, a gust of freezing air slammed into Tsuna. Gasping in surprise and using his own small body to try and shield G to the best of his ability, Tsuna felt his breathing go back to normal as his head cooled (no pun intended).

. . .

It was really, freaking cold.

. . . G was cold.

But he was _already_ cold. Tsuna . . . even if Tsuna wanted to, he couldn't go back in time and change that. But right now, Tsuna _could_ bring G somewhere warm. He couldn't change his past actions, but he _could_ make sure that his future ones were the right ones.

Ironically, Tsuna had this epiphany as he was doused in chilling winds and freezing snow. It quickly and efficiently snapped Tsuna out of his panicking state.

In other words, Tsuna still had a job to do. This was completely no time for Tsuna to―

"―Break down," Tsuna said out loud, blinking at the sound of his own voice and how real it sounded. Taking in a deep breath, Tsuna let it out slowly and continued to talk to himself.

"Calm down. A Mafia Boss should always be calm, no matter what situation they find themselves in, right . . . No-Good Tsuna?"

The wind blew by but this time Tsuna did not feel as cold. In fact, Tsuna was trying to squash the warm feeling inside his heart.

. . . Reborn brainwashed him. How could the familiarity of his depressing nickname help ground him even further into his reality?

Another cold gust of wind and a moan from G shooed Tsuna's head out of the clouds, and this time Tsuna found that his panic, while still there, remained dormant. But that didn't stop Tsuna's heart from breaking again for G though. After all, how long had the boy been outside in the cold while wearing rags and next to nothing?

"It's okay, you're going to be just fine." Tsuna murmured as he hugged the boy tightly and whispered reassurances, trying to transfer some of his own body heat to the older child. But even with Tsuna's efforts and his jacket, G was still freezing like the snow he had been half-buried in.

Nevertheless, Tsuna's more rational side finally took over. A forced calmness (his friend-but- _not_ may be dying with Hypothermia, so he can't be really calm even if his life depended on it!) settled into his bones and by the time Tsuna finally arrived at his hut, the blonde was no longer the panicking five year-old friend but the unperturbed Vongola Decimo.

The very first thing Tsuna did when he got back home with his freezing friend was to throw more wood into the fireplace, upping the heat in his already cozy house.

Next (after placing G down gently), Tsuna dragged the cushions off of the sofa, made a trip upstairs to drag the thin mattress-like thing off the guest bed and take some blankets and pillows, before he piled everything beside the fireplace into an imitation of a little bird's nest.

― _A cute and warm nest for Hibird that even Kyouya would approve of . . . no no must focus focus FOCUS―_

Tsuna breathed in to calm himself again. G was carefully set onto the bird's nest as Tsuna frowned, studying his work. The older child's clothes were completely soaked through with snow and he was still shivering uncontrollably, though thankfully, some colour (other than blue) was returning to his cheeks.

Tsuna sighed and tried to remember what Reborn had taught him about Hypothermia. First he needed to . . . Oh right! Tsuna needed to get those wet clothes off of G if he wanted the boy to get better.

Making another trip upstairs and raiding his mother's closet (thankfully, his mother seemed to keep some of his father's clothing, or perhaps it was for Giotto when he grew up?), Tsuna selected the smallest shirt and pants he could find before hustling back to G with the addition of a pail of warm water and a towel.

Unhesitatingly, Tsuna methodically stripped his ― _Giotto's_?― Storm-to-be before suddenly pausing with growing alarm.

Cuts of all sizes and bruises of all colours littered G's body. Tsuna could feel his eyes darken with anger as he stared at them, before immediately the Vongola Decimo part of his brain helpfully started to shoot orders.

Within the herbs and teas he had stolen on his last day at the Town, Tsuna had taken more than a handful of dried Calendula as a precaution. After all, in his new time period something like an infection may kill someone if they were unlucky. The plant Calendula could easily be made into an effective salve that sped up the healing of bruises and cuts. Tsuna had reluctantly made some immediately after he had gotten home because of his tendency to act like No-Good Tsuna from time to time (which meant tripping over thin air and somehow cutting yourself on wooden planks).

Now, however, Tsuna was for once really thankful for his clumsiness. Throwing a blanket onto G's naked body to keep him warm, Tsuna rushed back upstairs to grab the salve . . . and one of his mother's clean linen dresses so Tsuna could cut it up to make some bandages.

Upon returning to the pink-head, Tsuna dipped the towel he had gotten into the warm water, before wiping down G's body and making sure to clean his cuts carefully. After that, Tsuna grabbed his salve and spread it across all the cuts and bruises G had. He destroyed his mother's dress with a pair of scissors, before wrapping up all the cuts with the makeshift bandages and dressing the older boy in his father's clothes.

Tsuna took a moment to pause and catch his breath as he felt some of his weariness creep over him. He had not slept well the night before because of his Hyper Intuition's warnings and after finding G in such a state, Tsuna felt emotionally exhausted. But it was okay. G was covered up in blankets and dressed warmly, and finally some red was returning to his face and skin.

Now that the immediate danger was over, Tsuna could find himself spiralling into memories as he studied Primo's Right Hand from close-up. G looked so, so much like Hayato, even at his young age. The same hairstyle, the same angles of his face and the curves of his cheekbone. Everything screamed Hayato and unbidden, Tsuna could feel some tears sting his eyes as he thought about his loyal Storm . . .

"A-Ah . . . "

A pained moan abruptly drew Tsuna out of his thoughts. Blinking in surprise, the blonde looked at his charge before his eyes widened and he swore colourfully in both Japanese and Italian.

The red in G's face! It wasn't a normal red! Slapping his hand on G's forehead, Tsuna swore louder at the heat he felt radiating off of the boy's skin.

G's Hypothermia had gave away to a budding high fever.

Oh, great.

_Not._

* * *

_**eight weeks, five days** _

* * *

_T-Tenth!"_

_The door to his room slammed open and Tsuna sighed softly as his head spiked with pain at the noise. Really, and he thought that nobody had noticed him sneaking into his office . . ._

_"Tenth, you shouldn't be working right now." Gentle hands fluttered around him as Tsuna's Right Hand stared at him worriedly._

_Tsuna frowned, immediately regretting the action as his head pounded painfully in retribution. "I . . . I still need to finish the paperwork. Or else they're going to breed like rabbits, you know?"_

_Tsuna's attempt at humour fell flat. This time it was Hayato who frowned before he opened his mouth again, probably to try and convince Tsuna to rest. Surprisingly, the man was cut off (thank goodness) before he could go into his mother-henning rant._

_Someone snorted behind Tsuna._

_"You have a fever, No-Good Tsuna," A tall, imposing man with a fedorea stepped out of the shadows as Tsuna jolted in shock. "See? You didn't even notice my arrival."_

_Tsuna blinked slowly as he tried to digest the words. His brain felt like it was working at a snail's pace, but . . . Was . . . Was Reborn trying to tell him to take a break?_

_. . ._

_Reborn . . . wanted him to take a break? Really?!_

_Pitch-black eyes looked at him in amusement, though Tsuna could detect a bit of something else (his Hyper Intuition said it was worry but Tsuna thinks its probably just the fever speaking, because really, Reborn, worried?) in his gaze as well. "I thought I taught you to take better care of yourself."_

_Hayato nodded eagerly at the unexpected backup. "And don't worry Tenth! I'll help with your portion of the paperwork." Tsuna could feel himself gaping at his Storm's declaration. Hayato hated paperwork only marginally less than Tsuna himself!_

_But green eyes stared at him earnestly, and despite Tsuna's fatigue the young boss felt himself relax as Hayato's eyes―_

― _Turned red . . . ?_

.

.

.

Tsuna jolted out of his dream and breathed heavily as he waited for his heart rate to calm down. When had he even managed to fall asleep? Tsuna had been taking care of G all through the night, and eventually the red-head's fever (finally!) broke at three in the morning.

. . .

That reminded Tsuna of something quite important. His sick charge!

Whipping his head around to take a look at G, Tsuna was relieved to see that the older boy hadn't suffered from a relapse or anything after Tsuna had selfishly fallen asleep. G was still sleeping soundly, his face looking much more peaceful than how it was before.

Tsuna laid the back of his hand onto the future-Storm's forehead. It was still just slightly warmer than what could be considered as a 'normal' body temperature, but after his raging and unyielding fever it was certainly better than nothing. After fussing slightly over his sleeping charge, Tsuna stood up slowly and blearily made his way into the small kitchen.

Food . . . food . . .

He needed to find that dried chicken meat. Some chicken soup would be good for the sick.

* * *

Chicken soup, check. Herbal tea, check. Toast, check.

. . .

Well, _almost_ check. The breakfast Tsuna had been clumsily preparing would be ready in a few minutes. And good timing too, because Tsuna was absolutely starved. With G's scare, it had been over a day since he had last eaten food.

The blonde sighed softly as he decided to go check on G. Tsuna had been periodically leaning out to glance at him to make sure the older boy was alright, but he also needed to throw some more firewood into the fireplace to keep the fire going . . .

With another soft sigh (at this rate he was going to burn out his wood before spring), Tsuna stepped back into G's temporary room.

And immediately his whole world tilted sideways.

. . . The lack of sleep must have been getting to him. But no, Tsuna hadn't been _that_ out of it, to faint like that. So in that case . . . had his legs been swept away underneath him with a well-aimed kick? Cursing himself, because _how did he let his guard down_ and _who the hell managed to get into his house while avoiding all his traps soundlessly_ , Tsuna flailed slightly as his assailant pinned him down.

Something Tsuna was extremely familiar with, cold and metallic, touched his temple as a hand pressed down on his jugular, though not hard enough to choke him at the moment. Tsuna snarled, because he once was/will be _Vongola Decimo_ and he wasn't going down without a fight even if there was a freaking gun pointed at his head―

― _nothing left to live for anyway, right?―_

Before he completely froze as red eyes pinned a hostile (but Tsuna could see the hesitation under the red walls of steel) glare onto him.

.

.

.

_Silver hair whipped around in the wind as the boy turned around to smile gently at him . . ._

_"Tenth!"_

.

.

.

― _Aren't his eyes supposed to be green?!―_

"Who're you?!" G growled, his muscles looking tense even under the layers of clothes Tsuna had dressed him in. Tsuna blinked in shock, though not because of the pink-head's outburst.

_He even talked like Hayato as well . . ._

No. Tsuna, _stop_. This wasn't Hayato, your loyal Right Hand and best friend. This was a boy you _didn't_ know, no matter how much you _thought_ you knew him, and who was currently pointing a freaking gun at your head.

_Focus._

Agh, too late. Hayat― _G's_ face darkened at Tsuna's momentarily lapse in thought and resulting silence and dug the barrel of the gun deeper into Tsuna's head. The younger boy winced as G growled.

"Who're you?!" He repeated in irritation. "And where am I?! Why did you take me here?!"

G's voice cracked at the end as he broke off into a cough. Immediately, Tsuna's concern levels rose. Studying the boy who was straddling him, Tsuna was dismayed to realize that G had a sheen layer of sweat covering his body, and that his breathing was still rather unsteady. Their little scuffle couldn't have been the cause for that.

Despite his position, Tsuna felt a flare of distress and annoyance inside of him. He did _not_ nurse this stupid octopus head back to health just for him to get sick again!

Snapping his eyes back onto G's face, Tsuna frowned at how G's eyes were still wavering. "You shouldn't be up, much less tackling me like this! What were you thinking?!"

G's eyebrows rose in surprise before he glared viciously. "Shouldn't be up? Did your master drug me, pipsqueak?"

. . .

"WHAT?" Tsuna exclaimed as his mind finally processed the words that came out of G's mouth. Master? Drugs? _Pipsqueak_?! Were they still on the same page?

But of course, G took offence yet again from Tsuna's shock. The boy snarled angrily.

"Of course they don't tell the servants anything, huh?" G pushed the gun harder into Tsuna's head. ". . . I should just blow out your brains to leave your damn master a message."

But even with the harsh words, Tsuna didn't feel panic (Tsuna knew Reborn had destroyed his self-preservation!). His Intuition didn't warn him of any danger . . . was G lying?

Looking up with earnest eyes, Tsuna began to plead his case. "Ah, my name is,"

_Tsuna. But . . ._

"Giotto." His voice came out quiet and slightly scratchy. Tsuna mentally sighed; it had been forever since Tsuna actually made conversation with someone that wasn't himself or the shadows surrounding him.

G frowned tersely and Tsuna hastily continued. "I don't have a master. Nobody drugged you! Really!"

Silence.

Feeling rather nervous, Tsuna began to ramble slightly. "Why would they leave me with you? And you were unconscious before, if I wanted to hurt you I would have already!"

G studied him warily and Tsuna tried to hide the wince at the probing eyes he once knew so well. A few minutes passed like this, with Tsuna trying to not fidget as G seemed to try and bore a hole in his soul.

Finally, the older boy 'tsked' as he gave Tsuna another once-over. Probably finding nothing intimidating about him, G let go of Tsuna and got up cautiously. Tsuna sighed in relief as G plopped down, gun (and would you look at that? It was actually Tsuna's gun too!) still in his hand and his red eyes tracking Tsuna's every move.

"So," G said, his voice carefully neutral. It seemed like the pinkette had decided to give Tsuna the benefit of doubt. "Where am I? What happened?"

Tsuna sat down beside G, ignoring the tensing boy and the pain in his heart. _It was normal, it was normal!_

"I found you collapsed outside when I . . . "

Wait. Tsuna couldn't really say he charged outside into the freezing cold like a lunatic because his Intuition was feeling funny, could he? Let's see, believable excuse, excuse, excuse . . .

. . . Eh. Well, a little white lie shouldn't matter that much. After all, Tsuna's the one with the all-knowing Hyper Intuition!

"When I went to check up on some of my traps I left in the forest," Tsuna finished, fidgeting slightly as he looked down. "You were freezing and later had a high fever."

G froze. But that reminded Tsuna . . . Jumping up to his feet and ignoring the tensing of the boy beside him, Tsuna began to fuss over the magenta-haired child worriedly.

"Are you okay now?" Not giving the frozen child a chance to reply, Tsuna placed his hand onto G's forehead to check his temperature. "You're still quite warm . . . You really shouldn't have gotten up from your bed! What would happen if it caused a relapse?"

Snapping out of his shock, G slapped Tsuna's hand away harshly as confusion and hurt swirled in his red eyes. "What's it to you if I get sick? You don't even know me!"

Immediately Tsuna felt his patience snap, despite the pain G's words had carelessly caused. "I've been looking after you until your high fever broke this morning at three! Of course your health matters to me!"

. . .

Silence.

. . .

Whoops. Did Tsuna say too much? Feeling his anger disappear as quickly as it came, Tsuna looked down to see the damage his words caused.

G was gaping at him in sheer shock. He looked like a frozen stature. Blinking, Tsuna took the chance to push the surprised boy back towards the bird nest. "Come back to bed, you're still wearing pyjamas! It must be freezing," Tsuna said, reproachful.

Oddly obedient, G laid down and allowed Tsuna to fluff up his pillow and tuck in his blankets. Tsuna resisted the urge to hum happily as he finished fussing, before standing up to go back to the kitchen. In all the . . . excitement, Tsuna forgot how hungry he was.

However, a hand holding onto his sleeve prevented Tsuna from leaving. Tsuna blinked in surprise before looking back at the redhead.

". . . Name . . . hate . . . G." The older boy turned away to huff something under his breath. Something Tsuna unfortunately didn't hear. Whoops.

The younger winced, already foreseeing someone blowing up in anger. "Er, sorry, w-what did you say?"

. . .

G made a strangled noise.

"I said that I hate my name so you can just call me G!" The older boy bit out in a rush, his face reddening to match his hair. Surprisingly enough, however, the redhead didn't seem to be angry.

"Okay." Tsuna immediately nodded dutifully, if only to calm his companion down. Seeing G's red face brought back some recent not-so-nice memories, even if his face was now red due to embarrassment.

G stared at Tsuna again. Feeling a bit uncomfortable ― _stop stop stop red eyes not green this isn't Hayato_ ― Tsuna quickly stood up and started to make his way to his kitchen. He looked back at the confused and wary boy before he smiled slightly (feeling a bit proud that it was only a tad strained).

"Stay there G! Breakfast is almost ready!"

* * *

_**eight weeks, seven days** _

* * *

Working with G's trust issues was as tiring and slow-going as wading through his multiplying paperwork. Luckily, Tsuna was the epitome of patience.

. . . Er, kind of.

Actually, it was more of an acquired thing than a trait Tsuna was naturally born with. Let's just say that one would need an extremely long fuse if they didn't want to die from high stress levels because of their Guardian's crazy antics.

Anyway, back to G. The older boy was had severe, severe trust issues. As in, G's trust was practically non-existent. Tsuna had to first eat something of anything given to G before the redhead would eat it. Even then the boy would watch Tsuna carefully for a while before slowly beginning to eat himself.

G seemed to believe that Tsuna was out to poison him or something! It was completely frustrating for the younger child, because Tsuna would rather shoot himself with a gun than poison G.

Really, to be completely honest Tsuna didn't think that someone would use poison on a _street rat_. After all, unless people had a Reborn to pound different poisonous plants into their heads, regular people would need to buy poison. And poison was quite expensive. Beating someone up themselves would be much less costly.

Fortunately, G's suspicions seemed to slowly wane as he realized that absolutely none of the food Tsuna gave him had been tampered with. Still, Tsuna always took a small bite of all the meals in front of G to alleviate any of his concerns.

Until now.

". . . A-Ah, G?" Tsuna asked in surprise as he watched the boy pry the bowl of soup away from him _before_ Tsuna took a sip. G grunted, his face looking a bit red (Tsuna worried about the chances of a relapse before his Intuition assured him that it was not it) before tilting the bowl to his mouth for a few gulps. Putting the bowl back down, G started on a slice of toast Tsuna didn't taste-test yet as well.

.

.

.

Tsuna smiled.

* * *

_**nine weeks, two days** _

* * *

Geez, was it really that surprising that Tsuna refused to let G leave? No, right? After all, Tsuna didn't spend all that energy trying to nurse G back to health just for him to go out into the freezing cold to make himself sick once more. Plus, Tsuna had enough provisions for the both of them. There was really no use in letting the food go to waste.

(In fact, if not for the subtle nagging of his Hyper Intuition, Tsuna would have never saved so much food for winter . . .)

G, on the other hand, looked extremely shocked when Tsuna announced that he could stay with the younger boy until winter was over. Thankfully, the older had already passed over his 'let's-suspect-everything!' phase and so was not wary after Tsuna had announced that. But even so, his other feelings were clearly visible. G was completely confused as to why Tsuna allowed him to stay and free-load off of him. At that moment, Tsuna really felt his heart bleed for the boy.

But really, in all honesty Tsuna wasn't going to let G leave any time soon. They didn't talk about why G had been beaten black and blue, or why he had been freezing to death, but Tsuna wasn't going to let G go back to where he had been before if he could help it.

"Giotto?"

Tsuna jumped slightly in fright before turning around to face his amused friend. G raised his eyebrows as he gestured toward the potatoes Tsuna had been apparently massacring. The blonde child blushed.

"Sorry about that G," Tsuna said as he put down his knife. Tsuna really shouldn't be drifting off when he was holding sharp objects . . . "Are you done with the bread?"

After the last claws of sickness had completely disappeared from G's body, Tsuna had finally allowed the older boy to help him prepare meals. Slowly but surely, G warmed up to him as they bantered over the choices for lunch and when they could have dessert. Although G was still wary ―taking note of all exits in every room― he had turned almost friendly and definitely not openly hostile. For that Tsuna was grateful.

After all, if it was one thing of Hayato Tsuna did not miss, it was his Right Hand's attitude towards him. It had taken years for Tsuna to make Hayato see how _no_ , Tsuna wasn't perfect, and _no_ , Hayato was just as amazing, if not more, than his precious boss. Even then, the bomber had refused to call Tsuna anything but 'Tenth'.

G on the other hand was like a breath of fresh air. It was like having a non-obsessed Hayato with him. The older redhead was not afraid to call Tsuna out on his mistakes, and would argue with him with no second thought. He was completely different from _Tsuna's_ Storm.

. . . The thought hurt more than Tsuna would have thought.

* * *

_**nine weeks, four days** _

* * *

BANG!

"W-Wow . . . !"

Tsuna watched transfixed as G shot the tree with the half wooden gun Tsuna had found. The younger had given the gun to G, saying that he should keep it if he knew how to use it. In return, G had offered to show Tsuna how to shoot the other metal gun Tsuna had.

G smirked. "I'm quite good with guns." Turning around to inspect the hole he made in the tree, the older boy missed the sad look that Tsuna suddenly sported.

To be good with guns . . . what kind of childhood did G have?

Immediately erasing his upset look when G turned to him, Tsuna tried to pay attention to his lesson. G didn't like pity; he abhorred it. And in all honesty, Tsuna would never like it himself if someone was pitying him.

* * *

_**nine weeks, seven days** _

* * *

"Hieeee!" Tsuna shrieked slightly as he barely avoided G's flying fist. Ducking low and kicking out, Tsuna attempted to sweep G's legs from underneath him, but to no avail. Tsuna mentally pouted; it was hard to get someone with their own move. Tsuna didn't know why he had bothered.

G chuckled. "Nice try Giotto," he muttered as he tried slugging Tsuna once more.

They continued to spar like this for a few more minutes before G finally landed a hit when Tsuna slowed down slightly due to exhaustion. Collapsing into a sweaty heap, Tsuna wheezed through his mouth and poked his punched shoulder experimentally before wincing. It wasn't broken, but it was still going to leave a rather big bruise. On the other hand, G must have pulled his punch when he realized that Tsuna wouldn't be able to dodge. Tsuna had seen him accidentally punch the wall once (don't ask, whatever G said it wasn't Tsuna's fault!), and the redhead had left a freaking indent! In the wall!

G sat down beside him, panting slightly. With the right nutrients and food, Tsuna was delighted to see the older boy fill out and evolve from being a twig. Now, G looked like a thin branch, but nothing like the fragile twig he had resembled before. As a result, G's stamina had became much better than Tsuna's own.

. . . It was honestly a bit infuriating. Was Tsuna suppose to always be less athletic no matter what life he was in?

Anyhow, seeing no reason to deviate from his schedule just because of the addition of G in his household, Tsuna asked the older boy to spar with him. G was more than willing to oblige, and soon their daily spars became their thing. Tsuna was learning much more than when he had been on his own, and G seemed happy to get a chance to beat Tsuna up (another difference from Hayato, haha).

Something pulled off his shirt and Tsuna jumped in shock. Looking up, Tsuna saw G shaking his head at his exaggerated reaction.

"Hold still, silly!" G hissed as he brandished the healing salve Tsuna had. Slowly, the younger sat back down beside his friend as G began to spread the salve over Tsuna's bruise.

. . .

That's right. Even if G had no qualms about hurting Tsuna, his hands were unthinkably gentle afterwards when he patched Tsuna up.

* * *

_**ten weeks, three days** _

* * *

.

.

.

_Click._

In a way, Tsuna wasn't really surprised. His life with G had turned to the better when G finally stopped being so wary. Living in the past soon stopped feeling like a chore and Tsuna began to feel truly happy.

Things were going well. _Too_ well. Tsuna had been just _waiting_ for the other shoe to drop.

And drop it did.

" _G_ . . . " The younger boy breathed out slowly.

Tsuna had just returned home after checking his traps in the forest. Usually G had accompanied Tsuna on his trips outside after the older had begun to feel better, but this time G opted out since it seemed to be quite cold and they both needed more layers of clothing than normal. Instead, Tsuna had bundled up in both his coat and a few of G's clothing before setting out into the forest with a cheery goodbye.

Tsuna hadn't expected their friendship to splinter when he got home.

Red eyes. Hard, hard red eyes, (with none of that soft and fond glint usually directed at Tsuna) stared at him.

Upon returning home, Tsuna had been slightly surprised that nobody came to greet him. Even though G made a big show of how he didn't care if Tsuna got home safely or not, the older boy would always come to help him wipe off the snow and change into warmer clothing. G was surprisingly a big tsundere (who knew?).

But this time, Tsuna opened the door to eerie silence.

Frowning, but not completely worried, Tsuna changed quickly before making his way to G's ―and _his_ ― bedroom. Tsuna had originally been worried about the older boy (who still had a small fever) and had moved his bird nest to the guest room before dragging his own bed into there as well. After a while, however, they became used to being room-mates. Thus, Tsuna never moved back to his own room even when G had been completely cleared of his illness.

A steady hand held up a gun. Tsuna took in a deep breath.

But G hadn't been in their room. Now feeling some panic ― _what if someone got to G when he had been out_?!― Tsuna rushed out and just―

―Froze.

. . .

The door to his mother's bedroom was cracked open.

Tsuna had locked the room, resolved to not go back inside. G had never asked about the one room in the house that was locked, so Tsuna never said anything about the lavender locked door or the red stain still visible at the bottom of the stairs. He thought that the older boy wouldn't mind.

After all, G still had secrets he didn't share with Tsuna yet.

Slowly, not quite believing, Tsuna eased open the door and peered inside. Immediately a hand darted out and snatched his arm, pulling Tsuna inside to tumble onto the floor.

The blonde hit the floor hard. Dazed, Tsuna looked up.

His mother's room looked like it was turned upside down. Dresses littered the floor and the two wooden boxes Tsuna had stuffed deep into the closet sat on his mother's bed, with the one filled with jewellery open.

And oh look, the house mate Tsuna had just been missing was on the bed as well. But no, this wasn't the G that had been his house mate. This was the G, the G who Tsuna had first met that day when the older boy threatened to blow out his brain.

Quickly and fluidly, completely contradicting the age of the handler, G cocked the gun and pulled the trigger. Tsuna felt his breath get caught in his throat as he turned his face to see smoke from the bullet that lodged itself a foot away from his head.

"Hmm, I missed," G said, voice even and blank. Tears pricked the edges of Tsuna's eyes as G reloaded his gun before pointing it at Tsuna again.

"Who is your master?" G asked, still staring at Tsuna with those _deadeadead_ eyes.

Tsuna blinked. "W-What?"

G pointed the barrel of his gun closer to Tsuna. "Do you see these dresses and the jewellery? Your master, or should I say, _mistress_ , was pretty well off, hmm?" G said coldly. "Why did she want to capture me? To turn me into her slave?"

His mother-but-not wanting to turn G into a slave? Though Tsuna didn't remember his ― _nononono Giotto's_ ― mother at all, he knew that would have been impossible. After all, the beautiful but bloody blonde woman, was dead.

― _"Dead like all your precious Guardians, right Vongola Decimo?"―_

Tsuna could feel his emotions tumbling violently inside him as he pushed himself up slowly, ignoring G's yells to 'not move or I'll shoot!'. This time however, Tsuna could tell from his Intuition that G _would_ really shoot him. The thought made Tsuna want to cry . . . had those two weeks together meant nothing to G?

_But, nothing left to live for anyway, right . . . ?_

Snarling and losing his calm mask, eyes wide with suppressed hurt, G pointed the gun at Tsuna and his finger twitched. Suddenly, Tsuna felt his Intuition scream as his head spiked with a headache.

Tsuna was hit with a sudden wave of worry . . . but it wasn't worry for his own impeding death. No . . . it felt like worry for G . . .

Immediately Tsuna's eyes widened in shock before the younger shot forward at G. The older boy tensed in surprise as his finger twitched again and this time began to pull the trigger―

NONONONO!

Tsuna slammed into him, twisting the gun out of his hands and throwing it as far as he could―

The gun exploded.

Tsuna saw black.

* * *

_**? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?** _

* * *

_Something wet hit his face, like raindrops falling from the sky. Sighing softly as one salty drop managed to slip into his mouth, Tsuna peeled open his eyes to look up at his crying Storm Guardian._

_". . . Hayato, calm down. I'm fine."_

_The silver-haired bomber squeezed his hand and took in a deep, shuddering breath. His green eyes were already rimmed with red, and Tsuna would have felt exasperated if he didn't feel so damn numb._

_"T-Tenth," Hayato said softly. "You didn't have to push me out of the way."_

_That was when Tsuna snapped, eyes flaring as he glared at his best friend. "You wanted me to_ let _them shoot you?"_

_Something dark and black pushed Hayato away before he could respond and something warm flowed into Tsuna's body. Sighing in relief, Tsuna looked up to see black eyes glaring disapprovingly at him._

_"No-Good Tsuna," Reborn drawled slowly. "Were my lessons on how to avoid bullets so bad that you felt the need to have another practical exam?"_

_Even with his harsh words, gentle yellow flames radiated off his tutor's hands as Hayato scrambled back to crouch beside him._

_. . . Oh dear. Hayato was crying again._

_"Please, Tenth," The bomber sobbed. "Sistema C.A.I would have protected me. But you . . . please don't take a blow for me like that again."_

.

.

.

Tsuna felt cold. Tsuna felt hot. Tsuna felt pain.

There was someone crying beside him, even as something wet ―a wet towel, perhaps?― wiped his burning skin.

Tsuna slowly opened his eyes. A blob of red sat beside him, hovering like an angel. A guardian angel.

. . . Haha. Could someone like Tsuna, _Vongola_ Decimo Tsuna, have something as pure as a guardian angel?

"G-Giotto!"

Oh. Giotto. Right. He was Giotto now. Someone was calling for him. For Giotto?

Tsuna blinked his crusty eyes before attempting, and failing, to look at the red blob. Slowly but surely, Tsuna managed to deduce that the blob was G.

G.

Gun.

Explode.

_Ohmygosh_. Tsuna immediately tried to get up, only to be thwarted when warm hands pushed him down. Frowning, Tsuna looked at G again.

Wait. Hadn't G been trying to kill him?

"W-Why?" Tsuna asked, his voice weak and scratchy.

The blob of colour, rapidly focusing into G, swiped his hand over his red rimmed eyes. "Giotto you idiot! You almost died!"

Tsuna blinked, mind still befuddled. He almost died? That was what G wanted, right? Wasn't G worried about his mother capturing him?

Oh wait, did Tsuna not explain that yet?

"G," Tsuna murmured softly. "The dresses, the room, everything belonged to my mother."

Tsuna shook his head painfully when G told him to stop talking and to sleep some more. Tsuna had to finish.

"She died two months ago when she broke her neck falling down the stairs."

Stunned, G stopped trying to talk over him and Tsuna smiled softly. Why did he hurt so much? But it was okay, because now G knew and now G wouldn't be scared anymore . . .

Something hot and burning seared through Tsuna's body and the blonde gasped. No, he had to finish talking!

"G," Tsuna wheezed out softly. "I'm sorry for not telling you."

And then once again, Tsuna's world turned dark.

* * *

**{chapter ii end}**


	3. chapter iii

**{chapter iii}**

* * *

_**? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?** _

* * *

_Drip._

.

.

.

.

_Drop._

.

.

.

_Drip._

.

.

_Drop._

.

_Salty raindrops hit Tsuna's face as someone sniffled miserably beside him. Tsuna shivered as gentle hands peeled away his sweat-drenched clothes, allowing cold air to hit his feverish and hot body._

_"G-Giotto."_

_The hands were shaking almost as much as his own sick body was, Tsuna noted absent-mindedly. Just like that trembling voice . . . G's voice?_

.

.

.

_Drip._

.

.

_Drop._

.

_Another sob._

_"Giotto. You won't die," A small, cold hand brushed away his sweaty bangs and Tsuna sighed in contentment at the cool skin on his heated flesh. It was heaven for the simultaneously cold and burning hot boy. The quaking hand stayed on his forehead for a few more blissful seconds before it withdrew, accompanied by a quivering exhale._

.

.

.

_"I won't let you die."_

* * *

_**ten weeks, six days** _

* * *

The next time Tsuna woke up, it was to a red-haired boy sleeping uncomfortably on a chair beside his bed.

. . .

Tsuna blinked his gritty eyes in surprise as he suppressed a moan at his agonizing headache. His body ached something fierce and his throat was utterly parched, but that was nothing compared to the almost numbing pain in his left shoulder. All his memories were still jumbled up and his head was pounding in beat with his heart, but really, seeing G beside him was something he didn't expect.

Because after all, hadn't G tried to kill him? Vivid nightmares aside, Tsuna was _pretty_ sure that he hadn't dreamt that.

Which brought Tsuna to another thing he didn't expect; how the heck was he still alive? The last thing Tsuna remembered, he had been hit by some parts from the exploding gun and was left to the mercy of G, who wanted to kill him.

So how was he not dead? Tsuna was pretty sure that killing an injured and unconscious person would have been a piece of cake for his . . . friend? Enemy?

No, G was a friend. In all honesty, the red-head could try and kill him a hundred times over and Tsuna would still think of the boy as his friend.

. . . Then again Tsuna was too used to it. After all, hadn't basically _all_ his precious friends tried killing him at one point?

Hayato was the first, though his attempt had been planned by Reborn. Takeshi had thrown a baseball at him once before, and Tsuna swore he saw the light for a few seconds. Ryohei seemed to always try and _extremely_ deafen him. Or invite him to boxing matches where Tsuna would most likely die. Kyouya and Mukuro both wanted to 'bite him to death' and turn him into a mindless puppet, respectively. Byakuran was another and Enma definitely made the list.

And then you had Reborn, who seemed to make killing Tsuna his hobby.

. . .

Yeah. Tsuna should have saw G's attempt at murdering him coming. It seemed to be a prerequisite for Tsuna's friendship ―try murdering him once and _bang_! You've found your bestie for life.

But back to the main point. The G slumped beside his bedside hadn't disappeared even after Tsuna rubbed his eyes disbelievingly. Tsuna also detected no mist flames at work, so what he was currently seeing could not be an illusion. The G here ―was _real_.

Could Tsuna dare to hope that this G was the G from _before_? The kind G who had wrapped up his scrapes and taught Tsuna how to fire a gun, the gentle G who had bantered with him at meals and stared at him with those fond, indulgent eyes?

Could Tsuna really? But, G had been so _so angry_ , and Tsuna had been ready to lose him too, just like how he had lost Hayato―

― _greenglassyeyesbloodbloodblood_ ―

"G-Giotto?"

Tsuna blinked blearily as the blood-drenched silver-haired boy disappeared, leaving a gaping red-head in his place.

Right. He was Giotto now.

"Giotto!" G jumped out of his seat, his previous groggy face all but disappearing as he slapped his hand onto Tsuna's forehead. Tsuna recoiled in surprise before his brain caught up with his body. G wasn't going to try and hurt him now if he hadn't killed Tsuna while he had been sleeping! Luckily, G hadn't noticed his slight fear, being far too absorbed in checking Tsuna's temperature.

Tsuna sighed in contentment. The small hand felt really nice and cool against his hot face . . .

" _Merda_!" G swore as he literally flew out of the room with a bowl. Tsuna blinked in surprise (and in slight mourning: _nooooo_ , cold hand please come back!) as the older boy came rushing back in, but this time with the bowl filled with glistening water.

A mere five seconds later (wow, G worked as fast as Hayato . . .) and a wet, cold towel graced Tsuna's forehead. It was pure bliss. Tsuna almost purred.

G, on the other hand, looked no where near as happy as Tsuna was. The boy sat back down on his chair stiffly, his red eyes trained on Tsuna as if he would disappear.

. . . Tsuna was pretty baffled. The worried, attentive eyes were a huge difference compared to the cold eyes from before . . .

"G . . .?" Tsuna mustered up some strength to croak out his companion's name, trying to calm him down. Unfortunately, Tsuna's voice was soft and brittle, as weak as the wind's softest caress.

The younger mentally winced as G looked even more upset. Clearly Tsuna was much worse off than both G and he had originally thought.

G looked down, his hair falling forward to shadow his face. Forget mentally, Tsuna actually winced at the sight as he felt apprehension slither through his body. That was the look his Hayato sported, the look that could successfully cow even Mukuro and Kyouya into silence.

Oh no. Tsuna was in for a huge tongue-lashing.

"Giotto . . . You almost died."

Tsuna blinked at the words as his sluggish brain processed them. Wait. That was it? Maybe G's facial expressions were different from Hayato's after all.

"I know," Tsuna said softly, grimacing slightly at the spike of pain in his throat. However, even his Hyper Intuition wouldn't have prepared him for when G's head snapped up, fast enough to give the red-head whiplash.

"You know?" G gritted out, eyes a storm of furious red. "You _know_? You almost _died_! You would have if the metal shard had been a few more inches to the left! You would have if I had left and you bled out! You would have if _I had shot you_!"

. . . Yeah, no. G was Hayato to the core.

Tsuna tilted his head up to meet the blazing red orbs squarely. With a quiet but firm voice, Tsuna repeated his earlier words. "I know."

Immediately, G's anger seemed to leave him as he deflated, slumping down into his chair. Tsuna could feel his heart break for the broken image he was presented with.

"Why," G whispered slightly as he looked up with conflicted and confused eyes. "Why would you save me? I was . . . I was a stranger!"

The cold words were said so honestly that Tsuna stiffened in disbelief. This time it was Tsuna who snapped into a rant.

"A-A stranger?! We've been living together for weeks! Had all of that really meant nothing to you, G?! Because for me, I think of you as my _brother_!"

And just as quickly as it came, Tsuna's anger drained away. He stared down at his hands in his lap, completely missing G's look of shock and incredulity. Tsuna had deduced that the older boy didn't feel much for him. He knew it, because really, why else would the red-head be so willing to shoot him? He _knew_ . . . however, to hear his thoughts being confirmed by G himself, it . . . hurt.

And of course, Tsuna just _had_ to bare his heart like that. If G laughed at him now . . . if G still hated him . . .

.

.

.

_"Hmm? Ah, don't worry dear Decimo. My plan is going quite well . . . Ha ha ha . . . After all, how can you expect the Sky to stay whole when he has just lost his loyal Storm?"_

_A low keening sound was ripped out of his mouth as glassy green doll eyes stared at him (in accusation in accusation). He could already feel the scorching bile travelling up his throat―_

Something warm touched his right hand and before Tsuna could stop himself, he was already instinctively looking up.

Right into blazing red eyes. Eyes that were still _alive_.

"Giotto," G said softly, both his hands lightly squeezing his own in reassurance. For what, Tsuna didn't really know. "Thank you. And . . . I'm sorry."

_For everything_ , his red eyes seemed to say. _For almost hurting you. For really hurting you_.

. . .

Tsuna smiled, a wobbly but real smile. "I know."

* * *

_**eleven weeks, one day** _

* * *

Tsuna had to admit, he was a bit of a worry wart. It kind of came attached with the whole Mafia Boss thing, both stringed together like a package deal. After all, when you have crazy and explosive Guardians like his own, worrying himself halfway to death was something that became a normal occurrence. Unfortunately.

Thus, it was quite surprising when G, the scowling I-don't-care-about-you-at-all boy, turned out to be an even bigger worrier than Tsuna himself.

"Ah, the soup's ready Gio- _Giotto_! What are you doing out of bed?!"

"Do you need more blankets? You're shivering . . . n-not that I care . . ."

"You should finish your lunch, Giotto. Your wimpy body needs the energy to fight off your fever."

. . . Then again, Hayato was just as much as a mother hen compared to his Primo counterpart.

"Don't even _think_ about walking around, Giotto. What happens if you're too cold? Or if you overexert yourself?Taking care of you isn't my hobby or something, y'know?!"

Though Tsuna really didn't think that _his_ Right Hand was so tsundere.

* * *

_**eleven weeks, four days** _

* * *

Shivering slightly, Tsuna rubbed his arms to try and warm himself up. His fever was gone and his wound wasn't as painful as before (thankfully it was pretty shallow, and under G's attentiveness, did not become infected), but Tsuna still had the chills and random weakness spells attacking him.

Like now. Tsuna had been going to the kitchen to grab a snack, and maybe help G out with making dinner, when his knees suddenly felt weak and his head completely blanked. Next thing he knew, Tsuna was huddled on the ground and feeling terribly cold.

Maybe he shouldn't have gotten out of bed without G around to supervise . . . Then again Tsuna had really wanted to stretch his poor and stiff legs . . .

Someone 'tsk'ed and a warm blanket was settled onto his shoulders. Tsuna blinked and looked up in surprise.

G stood there, glowering at him even as a faint red settled on his cheeks. Smiling softly, Tsuna snuggled into the warmth before tilting his head sideways to look at his friend questionably.

The redhead was nervous, that much Tsuna could tell. With stiffened shoulders and a small huff, G stuck his hands into his pockets before plopping down to sit beside Tsuna.

Ah. Did the Storm wanted to talk?

". . . You shouldn't be up," G said gruffly as he kept one eye on the younger boy carefully. Tsuna only nodded. He had learned during his bedridden days that any protests would only spur his older friend into a lecture about health.

G snorted as he continued to eye him, absent-mindedly reaching up to tuck the blanket tighter around Tsuna's skinny body.

"Both my parents were part of the Mafia."

Tsuna froze as his mind processed the words. His head snapped up to see G looking away from him, the red orbs unfocused as if he was seeing something other than the fruit painting on the wall.

"They were pretty high up in the _Famiglia_ ," G continued in a carefully blank voice. "In fact, I was supposed to be the Heir."

Tsuna reached out to hold the older boy's hand, giving it a small squeeze. Forget Hayato, it seemed that G had a lot in common with Tsuna himself.

"And then?" Tsuna asked quietly, with a welcoming tone that did not sound the least curious. If G was ready to talk, then he was here to hear him out. But not sooner or later.

As if hearing his thoughts, the redhead flashed him a small and vulnerable smile. Tsuna immediately hated it. "And then they were killed."

Silence. Tsuna squeezed G's hand tighter.

"It's okay," G said even as he squeezed Tsuna's hand back. "I didn't care for them. In fact, I hated them. I was never their son, only the Heir. Even after their deaths, my position as Heir didn't change."

Tsuna's eyes widened as he listened to G's tale. He could guess where this was going now.

"So I ran away," G sighed. "But even now, sometimes people would recognize me. Bringing me back alive to my . . . no, the _Famiglia_ , would result in a huge reward, you know? So that's why . . ."

Oh. _Oh_. Never mind, Tsuna hadn't thought that _this_ was the purpose of G spilling out his life story.

Almost impulsively, G reached over and pulled Tsuna into a hug. The younger blond could only blink in pure shock. He knew how much G had hated it when people touched him. For the older boy to initiate it himself . . .

"Giotto, I'm sorry. I didn't think back then. I should have known that you . . . that you weren't like that. I'm sorry _mio fratellino_."

Tsuna's eyes widened as G's words washed over him. _Mio fratellino_. My little brother. G . . . saw him as his brother too?

The older boy was tense and kept his head bowed, as if he was afraid to look at Tsuna's face. Tsuna . . . Tsuna was so happy. Giddy, the younger boy broke out into a grin before he started to laugh, his eyes misty with unshed tears.

_G saw him as his little brother._

"Silly _fratello_ , there was no need to apologize. I was never mad at you in the first place."

* * *

_**twelve weeks, five days** _

* * *

"Giotto? What are you doing?"

Tsuna jumped in fright as a voice spoke up right behind him. Luckily, the younger boy managed to hold his hands steady as he poured the rest of the maple syrup into the pot.

"G!" The blonde whined childishly. "You scared me!"

Said mentioned redhead rolled his eyes. "Wimpy brat. But really, what are you doing?"

Tsuna pouted. And he had been hoping to surprise his friend too! Though he should have expected this; G seemed to always keep a careful eye on him even after his sickness was gone.

"I found some maple syrup in the cupboards," Tsuna explained. "So I decided to make some treats!"

G eyed the boiling syrup cautiously. "What kind of treats?"

Tsuna beamed as the maple syrup became ready. "Maple taffy."

Grabbing the pot with some mittens, Tsuna made his way outside, where he already prepared a tray of fresh and clean snow. His companion followed him curiously, his eyebrow rising as he saw the snow.

Carefully, Tsuna poured a line of syrup onto the snow. After that was done, he set down the pot gently and grabbed the thin, popsicle-like sticks he had left beside the tray. With precision, Tsuna placed the tip of the stick to the end of the syrup, before rolling the stick forward.

Before long, Tsuna was rewarded with a taffy popsicle. Cheering softly under his breath, the smiling blonde handed the sweet to his friend.

G blinked as he stared at the candy. Tsuna knew the older boy wasn't fond of sweets, but one flash of his puppy-eyes had the red-head caving. Sighing softly, G blew on the taffy before trying a bite.

The redhead blinked.

"How is it?" Tsuna asked eagerly. His Family were all treated to the easy-to-make maple taffy when they had visited Canada during the Wintertime. Tsuna was itching to try his own, but he wanted to see his older friend's reaction first.

G blinked again before his lips quirk into a small smile.

"It's sweet, but good."

Tsuna cheered and begun working on his own treat.

* * *

_**fourteen weeks, three days** _

* * *

"Ouch!"

G sniggered. Tsuna took a few precious moments to glare at his friend before he stuck his throbbing finger into his mouth.

Sucking on his wound gently, Tsuna turned back to the cloth on his lap . . . and glared at it.

He was _Vongola Decimo_ , no, Neo Vongola Primo. He was _not_ going to lose to a piece of cloth.

Tsuna had gotten the bright idea when he had saw G push up his baggy sleeves, for the umpteenth time. He could remember how his mother ―his _real_ mother― Nana used to sew and tailor some of his clothes, to make them fit him better.

Which brought us back to why Tsuna was currently trying to learn how to sew. If he could learn the skill, both he and G wouldn't have to worry about clothing for a long time. After all, Tsu- _Giotto's_ mother had a wide variety of good quality dresses. Which meant good quality cloth. Which meant that if Tsuna could learn how to tailor, he could make clothing for himself and G.

Tsuna winced again as he poked yet another finger. How did Nana do this again? And geez, why didn't Reborn teach him the wonderful ways of sewing too?

Then again . . . as a Mafia Don Tsuna had a gaggle of tailors at his beck and call . . .

"You're pretty bad at this," G commented as his eyes flitted up from his novel. Tsuna had been both surprised and not when he found out that G loved books with a passion. He was really a genius, just like Tsuna's Hayato.

"Blegh," Tsuna muttered, eyeing his mutated fingers with grief. "I don't see you trying to do this. Anyway, G, aren't you a noble? Don't they teach you how to do things like this?"

G twitched at the word 'noble', a dark look passing over his face, before his brain processed the rest of Tsuna's words. Immediately, G sat up straighter with an affronted look.

"I said I was a Mafia Heir, not a tailor's son! We have maids for stuff like that, you know?"

Oh, Tsuna _did_ know. Unfortunately.

With a quiet sigh Tsuna settled back down to try and stitch again. He could almost hear Reborn's voice in his head, along with the quiet click of his gun . . .

' _What's this, No-Good Tsuna? A Mafia Boss doesn't give up. Just―_ '

"―Do it with my Dying Will, right?" Tsuna murmured inaudibly to himself.

* * *

_**seventeen weeks, one day** _

* * *

Tsuna managed to sew his own dress shirt after much patience, needle pokes, and an amused friend. Thankfully, Tsuna had the foresight to choose black cloth, or else he would have never gotten the red blood stains out.

Beaming, Tsuna handed his finished project to the redhead. G chuckled as he took off his over-sized shirt, and ruffled Tsuna's hair. With an anticipating gaze, Tsuna watched G as the boy slipped the dress shirt on―

"Gah! Giotto, you forgot to leave a hole for the head!"

―Tsuna buried his head into his arms and tried not to laugh.

* * *

_**eighteen weeks, four days** _

* * *

"Come on G!" Tsuna shouted as he skipped through the trees. G gave a long-suffering sigh as he followed close behind.

Tsuna was pretty excited. Winter was finally starting to give its way up for Spring, and the temperature had begun to rise.

Tsuna had noticed that G seemed to be distracted and unhappier lately. Thus, with the warming temperatures, Tsuna deemed it time to go back into Town. And this time, Tsuna would be able to give his friend a few lessons on how to actually steal properly.

Of course, that was after they had blackened G's eye-catching red hair with some dye. Now the red-head looked like a brunet.

"We're here," Tsuna said as he ducked under a final tree. The Town was finally in sight. At their walking pace, Tsuna suspected that they could be within the market place within ten minutes.

"Finally," G muttered softly as he walked beside Tsuna. The younger rolled his eyes. G was quite impatient, despite his calm façade.

" _G_ ," Tsuna whined softly. "We're here to teach you how to steal, you know!"

Unexpectedly, the red-head tensed slightly before he relaxed with a raised eyebrow. Tsuna filed the reaction away for later analysis; maybe he triggered a bad memory?

"I steal just fine, Giotto," G commented lightly as he eyed the houses that lined the streets. This time it was Tsuna who begun to giggle in disbelief.

"Having people chase after you isn't good skill," Tsuna said when he got his laughter under control. Walking into the marketplace, Tsuna begun to instruct his friend in soft tones.

"Look like you belong to the crowd, but not too much so that people would pay attention to you. Just enough so that you won't look out of place."

Tsuna walked forward, matching the speed of a family walking a few meters away from them. G quickened his pace to follow.

"Try to keep yourself to the shadows. It'll be best if people won't notice you at all in the first place."

Tsuna ducked under a ledge and let the darkness blanket him with the familiarity of an old friend. He eyed the bread and chocolate on one of the tables that sold perishables.

"And finally, be confident in what you're doing."

Carrying his shopping bag, Tsuna neared the shop with a slow march. As he passed the table, timed just so that the owner would be facing another customer, Tsuna's hand darted out to swipe both the loaf of bread and the bar of chocolate.

By the time the owner had turned back to the table, Tsuna was already several meters away and sitting beside a gaping G.

Taking one look at his shocked friend, Tsuna smirked. Now, _that's_ how you do it.

* * *

_**nineteen weeks, two days** _

* * *

Tsuna was pretty upset.

Contrary to Tsuna's objective, G had been becoming increasingly more distracted after their first trip to the Town, maybe even more-so. The boy became quite jittery and nervous, and before long the red-head had started subtly catering to Tsuna's every whim. His behaviour was becoming scarily Hayato-like.

You would have to be blind, or particularly naiive (like Nana) to not notice G's discomfort. Thus, the Storm's attempt at hiding his actions stood no chance against Tsuna and his dear alien-like Hyper Intuition.

So yes, Tsuna knew that G was unhappy with something. But that was all he could figure out because the older boy ― _wouldn't tell Tsuna why_.

And now that was where the problem lay. Tsuna was pretty good at reading his Storm, but he (unfortunately) didn't inherit his sadistic tutor's apparent mind reading abilities. In addition, though Hyper Intuition was quite an amazing skill, it didn't exactly make Tsuna omnipotent.

Tsuna desperately wanted to help G. To erase the painful looks on his face when the red-head thought the younger wasn't looking. But, how could Tsuna do that if he didn't even know what was wrong?

Tsuna didn't even dare confront his friend. Unfortunately, it was because of how well Tsuna knew G that stopped him from gathering the missing puzzle pieces. G disliked being leashed, being controlled. He wouldn't like it if Tsuna tried to help and would instead see Tsuna's efforts as a restriction.

But on the other hand, what kind of friend would Tsuna be if he didn't try and find out his dear Storm's worries?

And that was exactly why Tsuna had stayed so long in their limbo, in this stalemate. Because he had been so conflicted at what he should do, Tsuna ended up doing nothing for a week. The younger blonde felt almost ashamed.

_BAM_!

All of a sudden, the door slammed open, cutting off the rest of Tsuna's thoughts as the child jumped in surprise. Turning around quickly, limbs unconsciously moving into a starting kata for more versatility, Tsuna looked up to see . . .

"G?" The younger asked in surprise as the mentioned red-head panted, presumably from running to their location. Immediately Tsuna felt some guilt well up in his chest. Why was it that G had to initiate everything when there was something wrong? Was he a coward?

Straightening up, G pinned red eyes on Tsuna in an unnerving stare. "Giotto."

A pause. Tsuna shifted uncomfortably in the silence as his friend continued to stare at him unblinkingly. Despite Reborn's attempts to beat it out of him, Tsuna never felt at ease when people stared at him. It made him feel trapped. It was also the cause of many headaches for his Guardians, how they would have to calm down their boss whenever he had a panic attack because he had to deliver a speech.

At this point, only the thought that he might learn what was bothering G kept the blonde's feet rooted to the ground.

"Giotto," G repeated again as he stepped forward to face him, eyes still glued to Tsuna. Mentally sighing as his reluctance lost the battle to his conscience, the younger boy looked up to meet G's red gaze.

"G, what's wrong?" There. Tsuna said it. Weeks of stalling, and now he finally said it. Tsuna felt a load lift off his shoulders as his worries were finally voiced. Tsuna had been worried that G would brush him off, or be mad that Tsuna tried to pry into all his affairs. If G didn't tell him, Tsuna believed that it was probably something not that important.

However, to his horror, G immediately flinched at Tsuna's question. Now it was Tsuna who felt dread pool in his gut. What could worry G to the point where the older would flinch like that? Did some assassin catch his trail? Was he being threatened? Blackmailed? Hurt?

"G, what's wrong?" Tsuna asked again, this time his worry all but bleeding through his voice. He studied G's figure attentively, trying to see if there were any visible wounds.

Alarmingly, his red-haired friend only stayed silent. Worry now oozing out of his body like an overdose of perfume, Tsuna stepped forward to get closer to his friend in an attempt to locate his distress.

Before Tsuna promptly got the scare of his lifetime.

Red head snapping up, Tsuna jumped as he was pinned once again with determined, blazing red orbs. G reached out to grab one of his hands, holding it tightly as he took a deep breath.

"Giotto," G started, his voice strong and unyielding despite the small quiver. "I'm not leaving you."

.

.

.

. . . _Wait, what_?

Was Tsuna missing something from point A to point B? Or maybe Byakuran had somehow managed to drop him into another universe that morning?

Looking discouraged at Tsuna's stunned silence, G fidgeted as he began to slightly ramble.

"Of course, I'll earn my keep. I'll steal my own food and I can find my own shelter in the forest. I only want to check up on you every now and then, and maybe we can spar at times too―"

It was then did stupefied Tsuna found his voice as he blinked wide, surprised eyes at his friend.

"Why are you leaving?" Tsuna asked in an incredulous and hurt tone. Had he done something wrong? Had Tsuna accidentally offended his friend?

But this time it was G who looked confused. "What? Didn't you say that you would let me stay until Winter was over? It's Spring now."

. . .

Tsuna blinked once. Twice. Before erupting in chuckles as he grabbed his stomach.

G stood there in bewilderment as Tsuna tried to get his laughter under control. Really, _that_ was what had been bothering G all that time? Tsuna didn't think it would have been something so stupid. He was surprised that G even remembered his words, after all their excitement.

"G," Tsuna said as the last of his giggles died away. "I don't want you to leave. What kind of brother would I be if I kicked my family out?"

The lost look the red-head directed at him sobered Tsuna quickly as he tried to look as serious as possible. Had G really been thinking that he would send the older on his merry way as soon as Winter gave way to Spring?

"I thought . . ." G started out, looking more like the vulnerable nine-year old than the boy who could professionally fire a gun. "When we went to the Town, and you taught me how to steal like you, I thought you were just preparing me . . ."

_For when you throw me out_. The words were not verbally voiced but Tsuna could hear them loud and clear. Suddenly, his earlier amusement all but fled as Tsuna felt tears prick his eyes. Stepping forward to give his friend a hug, Tsuna berated himself for not asking days before when he had first noticed G's discomfort. He had unknowingly allowed G to suffer so much.

"You're not leaving, I won't let you," Tsuna said, voice muffled as he pressed his face into G's stiff body. Inhaling his friend's unique scent of gunpowder, Tsuna quietly repeated the words he had said before.

"What kind of brother would I be if I kicked my family out?"

* * *

_**forty-four weeks, seven days** _

* * *

"Hieee!"

Tsuna flailed slightly as he tripped head first over a particularly large tree branch. Crashing into a crumpled heap, Tsuna winced as he got a mouthful of dried leaves. The sound of G's chuckles filled his ears as Tsuna pushed himself up, gingerly massaging the bruise on his head.

"G," Tsuna whined softly. "Don't laugh at me, it's not funny!"

Spring gave away to Summer, which gave away to Fall. Tsuna spent his lazy days of childhood (hey! He was only six, you know!) with his older friend as they watched the seasons go by. Slowly but surely, both boys became increasingly in tune to the other's habits and quirks.

Despite being thrown into a body that was not his own, Tsuna could honestly say that he was as happy as he could be.

"Giotto, it never fails to amuse me when I see you trip," G sniggered as he reached down to help his friend up.

Tsuna pouted as he got to his feet, hiding his own amused eyes as G began to pat his clothes to get rid of the dirt. The red-head was really such a mother.

Both were on their way to the Town once more, for their bi-weekly stealing/shopping spree. Though in the beginning Tsuna had always offered to go by himself, there wasn't a single time where G did not go with him. Soon, it became a trip that both boys looked forward to.

Tsuna rocked on his heels as he smiled. "We're almost there, finally." G snorted.

"Relieved that there won't be any more things to trip over?" The older pinched a lock of Tsuna's gold hair before tugging it teasingly.

Tsuna pouted again even as he bounded up to the tree that served as the end of the forest path. Ducking under it, Tsuna griped good-naturedly. "It's not like I want to trip over things! They're out to get me, I swear―"

Words dying in his throat, Tsuna came to an abrupt stop.

". . . Giotto?" Sensing something wrong, his older companion immediately emerged from the path himself, red eyes alert before they suddenly widened in horror.

Together, both boys took a moment to take in the view.

The view that had a deserted, charred and burned Town.

* * *

**{chapter iii end}**


	4. chapter iv

**{chapter iv}**

* * *

_**forty-four weeks, seven days** _

* * *

 

". . ."

Both boys stared at the obliterated Town, ashes still smoking, in silent disbelief. Houses that once stood tall and mighty were reduced to mere rubble, and any greenery in the Town was long demolished.

But as terrible as that might have sounded, the description was no where near covering the full extent of the damage dealt by the Town's assailants. Tsuna felt his body numbing with an icy cold as his mind processed what he was seeing. After all, the old cobblestone paths that were still visible from their vantage point were now dyed a permanent red.

Evidently, nothing short of a complete slaughter had taken place.

"A-Ah . . ." A strangled noise forced its way out of Tsuna's throat as the blonde recoiled and took a step back.

Reborn had once admitted, long after Tsuna had taken over as Vongola's Don, that Tsuna was nothing like a Mafia boss. Because though Tsuna was a Vongola Sky, a leader born to rule, he was a Sky with extremely pure flames. Pure flames that made Tsuna the living representative of what it meant to be Harmony. Tsuna lived for others. He ached for them and laughed for them. Despite being a Mafia Don, bloody _Vongola's_ Don, Tsuna still valued life like a precious treasure.

So, was it really that surprising for G to be the first to recover? The redhead gently covered Tsuna's eyes before spinning him around and hurriedly herding them back to the path that led them to their home.

G was a thief. He was an orphan, he was a dead Mafioso's child. But above all, the older child was a genius. The boy had quickly taken in the density of the smoke and the charred ashes of the Town before making accurate deductions.

"Giotto," G said softly, trying to snap his friend from his dazed state. "The people who destroyed the place should have just left, but since we didn't meet anyone on our way to the Town, I think the ones responsible temporarily went the other way."

Tsuna blinked rapidly, trying to ground himself using his companion's words. He was better than this. His hands were already stained with blood from long ago, once upon a time. The horrible scene Tsuna had just saw was not even supposed to faze him . . . !

Seeing that his friend was somewhat lucid, G continued. "Its too dangerous to stay here. If we hurried, we could make our way back to our house and grab some things before making a run for it. I mean . . . without food, money, or more clothes, we would not last long."

". . ."

Tsuna closed his eyes as he willed the silvers of panic to go away. G was right. The ones responsible for destroying the Town . . . they did not show any mercy. Tsuna's cottage was too close for them to not stumble upon it. It was too dangerous to stay, especially considering the fact that the assailant's motives were still unclear.

But . . . that just meant that the only home Tsuna had ever known in this new life was no longer safe.

.

.

.

". . . Okay," the blonde whispered reluctantly. G nodded at him solemnly, eyes too old for his age, before both boys began their mad dash back.

Tsuna and G were home in twenty minutes.

They were gone in another fifteen.

* * *

Both boys hadn't packed much. If anything, everything they had decided to take along were for practical reasons. Tsuna took all the money, and few of the most expensive jewellery, splitting the loot evenly between his and G's bags. G scoured the kitchen and packed enough food and dried rations to last at least a month. In addition, G and Tsuna individually bundled themselves up in as much clothes as possible, before stuffing a few clothes and a blanket each into their packs.

And then they were left with the weapons. G had stared at the two guns before taking a deep breath and pocketing both plus any bullets he could find. Tsuna stuffed a small dagger in each of his boots before securing a larger one on his hip and slinging a sword around his back.

Soon, they were at the door, ready to leave. Tsuna looked back at the homey hut, the one filled with so many memories. Taking in a deep breath to steel his nerves, Tsuna closed the door and led G to the garden before scaling the fence and making his way into the wilderness surrounding them.

G hadn't even blinked an eye as he followed him silently. Tsuna knew that G trusted him, but was grateful all the same at the show of sheer loyalty G unwittingly gave him.

_The ever loyal Storm, the trusting ―green-no-red-no-green-no― eyes . . ._

Finally, they made their way to a clearing with a small slab of stone. The redhead's eyes widened ever so slightly as he pieced the clues together, but he still stood motionlessly as Tsuna fell to his knees and lowered his head.

"Thank you, Mother. And goodbye. I will be taking my leave now. Please don't worry, G will be with me."

G nodded once, respectively, as Tsuna stood up and turned to go. And as Tsuna left the quiet clearing with the lonely stone slab, he could almost hear Nana's voice telling him to have a nice trip and to come back safely.

.

.

.

_A warm, warm smile and the brightest brown eyes beamed at him._

_"Itterasshai, Tsu-kun!"_

* * *

_**forty-six weeks, four days** _

* * *

Shades of bloody pink and golden orange painted the clouds as the night stars blinked their ways back into oblivion.

"Ngh . . ."

In other words, the sun was rising as the new day graced the world.

Tsuna buried his face into magenta locks as he snuggled closer to his only heat source. The thin arm around his waist obliged his unspoken request, hugging him closer as a small hand soothingly stroked his fluffy locks.

The last two weeks had been nothing short of hectic, and the blonde was absolutely exhausted. After that fateful day of dying fires and destroyed homes, Tsuna's life had taken a sudden, unexpected turn.

Countless days were spent walking under the cover of the forest trees. Tsuna had dug out a map he had grabbed the last time he was in the Town, and after looking it over with G, they had decided to keep to the forest and make their way to the village the farthest away from their cottage. Tsuna had originally been questioning if going so far away was overkill, but a quiet purr from his Hyper Intuition resolved any more doubts.

. . . Eh? Why were they currently snuggling? Well . . .

Although both kids were being practical at the time, Tsuna and G had underestimated just how cold nights could become. Fires were too risky to keep going through the night, as it could be a cause of a forest fire _and_ it would give away their position to anyone chasing them.

So, tired of freezing and watching his friend freezing, one night Tsuna had just set his blanket next to G before plopping down and snuggling next to him.

The first time it happened, G's face turned as red as his hair. Thankfully, after a few more awkward puppy piles, the older boy finally stopped blushing.

"Giotto," a rough but reluctant voice rumbled near his ear. Tsuna whined softly even as he tried to snuggle back into his human teddy bear.

"We should start packing up," G said as he switched to rubbing soothing circles on his friend's back. "We'll have to leave at first light if we want to make it to the village before night falls."

Tsuna groaned. He knew that, because he was the one who had decided to try and reach the village today. With a sigh, Tsuna peeled open his crusty eyes and sat up slowly, G silently untangling their blankets and their limbs.

"Sorry G," Tsuna murmured as he got up and searched their bags for their canteens of water and something that could be a morning breakfast. "I just really miss having a roof over my head . . ."

They didn't bring a long a tent or anything. Actually, Tsuna wasn't even sure if that even existed in his new time period. Thus, most of the time nights were spent sleeping underneath the twinkling stars.

When it felt like it was going to rain, or if Tsuna's intuition gives him a warning, both boys would give up walking for the day and build a small house. Well, house was too nice of a term for it. Tsuna would balance thick tree branches and make a framework, while G would gather branches with abundant leaves to throw on top. In the end, they ended up with a green bush that was thankfully mostly waterproof.

"I know," G said as he accepted his canteen and pieces of dried apricot and jerky. He took a swig of water before sighing with a small smile. "I'm sorry to say that I can't relate, though. I'm just used to this."

Tsuna paused in his action of bringing his bottle of water to his lips, a look of sadness passing over his face at G's attempt of reassurance. Every now and then, he would be reminded that his Storm hadn't led the best life before Tsuna found him. In fact, his life had been terrible even compared with Tsuna's.

. . . Why were his Storms always deprived of their childhoods?

"A-Ah!" G blurted out when he looked up at the sudden quiet and realized that he had unintentionally upset his friend once more. "Don't be sad Giotto! I didn't mean anything by that, actually, I'm really happy you're not used to this life, I mean―"

"Don't worry G," Tsuna said softly, cutting off his friend's uncharacteristic babbling as his eyes glinted with resolve. "I'll get used to it too. After all. . ."

Tsuna smiled and reached over to squeeze a baffled G's limp hand.

"I won't leave you, _ever_ , because we're a family."

* * *

_**forty-eight weeks, two days** _

* * *

The village they first went to was nice. To Tsuna's eternal surprise, he and G were able to rent a comfy, single room in the village's only inn. Tsuna had originally thought that they would have to stay at the local church, who provided shelter for orphans, but apparently they had enough money on them that renting a room for two weeks wasn't even going to dent it.

. . . Tsuna sent a quick 'thank you' to Giotto's mother.

"Giotto, are you done packing?"

Looking up at the irate voice, Tsuna sent a sheepish smile at his annoyed friend. Grabbing his map from his pack, Tsuna made his way over to G and sat down.

"So," Tsuna said as he spread the map out on their bed. "Where should we go next?"

Two weeks had passed since both boys began to relax in their new home. Food was plentiful and the innkeeper's family was kind. Tsuna had even started to entertain thoughts of settling down with G in the peaceful village.

However, it was just not meant to be. After all, his Hyper Intuition acted up again.

To be honest, Tsuna's Hyper Intuition wasn't anything like it had been before. In his time, Reborn had spent months training Tsuna's Intuition alone. Thus, it had quickly advanced to a point where the skill sometimes felt more like an additional personality. Back then, whenever Tsuna's Hyper Intuition acted up, it basically felt like someone was whispering helpful clues into his ears. Tsuna could literally hear another voice inside his head.

(His Family repeatedly reassured him that he was not going crazy. Tsuna still had doubts about that.)

Now, however, with his current body Tsuna's . . . _Giotto's_ Intuition was like how Tsuna's was when he had first unsealed his flames. It was weak, just a small nudge in his head or perhaps an unease in his chest. Almost what a trained Mafioso's intuition may be.

But that day was different. Tsuna had all but stopped in his tracks in the streets, G bumping into his back in surprise, when his Inuition suddenly urged him to _leave. Leave the village. Leave while you still can._

There was a sense of startling urgency, but in a way there wasn't as well. The warning felt as if it came many days early. They would have time to leave way before the danger hit if they got ready right away.

And so Tsuna turned around and quickly led G back to their rented room. He sat his bewildered and worried friend down before Tsuna took a deep breath and spilled his thoughts. Thankfully, this had not been the first time Tsuna's Hyper Intuition made an appearance, so G was quite believing and immediately agreed to leave despite their current comfortable lives.

"Hmm . . ." G hummed as he looked the map over, long index finger trailing paths away from their village. Finally, the redhead looked up.

"What do you think, Giotto? Is your Intuition telling you anything?" G asked as he looked at his friend thoughtfully. Tsuna blinked in surprise before focusing on the map and sweeping his eyes over it.

Another big village. A small town. The nearby chain of small villages―

And then Tsuna saw it. Eyes widening as his chest hummed in agreement, he pointed to the drawing of a huge city.

"Città Bovina," Tsuna breathed, a cacophony of delighted squeals filling his head just at the mere thought of going.

On the other hand, G was certainly not as happy. Groaning in exasperation, the redhead buried his head in his hands as he lamented softly. "Why must you pick the farthest place on the map?"

* * *

_**fifty-one weeks, seven days** _

* * *

_His family were all lounging around in Tsuna's office. Honestly, it was a miracle. After all, his laughing Guardians, from his Right Hand to his dual Mists, were all there. Takeshi was riling Hayato up once again, while Ryohei was shaking an excited fist at a disgruntled Kyouya. Lambo was stuffing himself with grape-flavoured sweets as he slid around gleefully on Tsuna's office chair. Chrome sat behind her male counterpart, giggling as she, lo and behold, braided Mukuro's long hair. Even Reborn was there, leaning on the wall as his fedora shadowed his smirking face and hid his eyes from the world._

_Tsuna felt himself smile at the beautiful sight. His family was all together, alive and happy . . ._ This _was what he worked for as he spilt blood reigning as Vongola's Don._

_"Tenth?"_

_Shaking his head to rid himself of his temporary daze, Tsuna looked up to answer his loyal Right Hand . . . before freezing in horror. And then his little smile broke into thousands of tiny pieces._

_Blood. Silver hair was matted with drying brown. Green eyes staring eternally at him, with . . . with pain? Accusation?_

_Tsuna didn't know. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know._

_His pristine office was quickly deteriorating, wallpaper peeling away and windows shattering silently. Blood pooled on the floor, their lush rug soaking it all up and turning a bright red. People, his precious people, fell around him._

_Chrome._

_Mukuro._

_Takeshi._

_Kyouya._

_Ryohei._

_Lambo._

_Even Reborn was dead, always-present smirk gone as his body lay mangled, bloodied, at Tsuna's feet. His fedora's orange stripe now a dark red._

_Tsuna took a horrified step back as the blood of his loved ones inched to his feet. Shadows grew larger as the ground beneath Tsuna suddenly gave away, leaving the don to fall screaming to his demons._

_"YoU'vE eScApEd FoR a YeAr. CoMe BaCk To Us . . ."_

_Tsuna sobbed._

_"D **e** A **r** B **o** S **s**."_

.

.

.

A soft, keening wail burst out of his throat, only to end in gasping coughs. Tsuna's eyes snapped open before he quickly closed them once again, moaning in pure pain.

Everything felt too bright. His body was aching all over as every single sound around him felt distorted to his ears.

Was he in an illusion? Was Mukuro playing a trick on him?

But no . . . Mukuro was . . . _Mukuro_ was . . .

Hunching into himself miserably as his skinny frame shook with the uncontrollable coughs, Tsuna let out a soft sob as he dry heaved. When his little fit passed, the poor boy all but melted back onto his bed as his left hand blindly grappled for his journal.

It took a full minute before Tsuna was able to locate it. Eyes watering at the pounding headache he had, Tsuna opened the book and spent a moment just running his fingers over the scratches that dented the pristine pages.

Three hundred, sixty four tallies. It had been a full year since Tsuna found himself in his new time, in his new body. And as each tally faithfully graced the pages of Tsuna's journal, Tsuna found the hope he had for waking up one day back in his own time to be slowly dissipating.

― _blood raining from the dying sky like acid rain, dark shadows reaching out to grab him_ ―

But . . . was being in the past really such a bad thing?

Closing the journal and stuffing it back into his bag, Tsuna rolled over on his side to try and hack out a lung once more. Whimpering softly as nothing but spittle flew out of his mouth, Tsuna snuggled back into his blankets as his body simultaneously went through both burning heat and icy cold.

The door to the rented room was carefully eased open as a red-haired boy scurried through hurriedly, holding a tray filled with food. G quickly made his way to his feverish friend, replacing the wet towel on Tsuna's face and grabbing another to wipe his limbs. Tsuna sighed in both relief and agony as the cold towel burned his skin.

"I brought you some porridge, Giotto," G said softly with worried eyes. "The matron made it for you."

Tsuna made a pained face at the mere thought of ingesting food. He tilted his heavy head to look at his friend pleadingly, even though it felt as if it was impossible for Tsuna to focus on something.

"Don't look at me like that," G said as he set his hand on his friend's burning forehead, eyes narrowing at the heat. "You need to eat if you want to get better."

Sitting down on the bedside, G grabbed the bowl of porridge and dipped the spoon in. Blowing softly at the spoonful, he fed his ill friend patiently.

Tsuna would have found G's mothering hilarious if he wasn't already halfway delusional. The screams of both himself and his falling family were still fresh in his mind, and it took him every ounce of control to not throw up all over his friend.

G. His friend. The spitting image of bloody Hayato.

Tsuna choked on a sob as he finally finished the last spoonful, before throwing himself onto his friend and hugging him tightly. G let out a grunt of surprise, which quickly turned into worried rambling when he found his friend trembling violently and crying his eyes out.

"Giotto?! What's wrong?!"

A few moments passed like that, as Tsuna clung desperately to his friend and wept into his chest. G's hands flailed in uncertainty, unsure of what to do, before finally the redhead steadied himself by taking a deep breath.

"Shh, its alright Giotto," G heaved his friend and himself back onto the bed and wrapped the blankets around both of them. Tsuna trembled even under the covers and pressed against his warm friend, his head hurting viciously. Combing his fingers through the blonde's sweaty hair, G rocked them back and forth as he began to sing softly under his breath.

_"Dormi, dormi bel Bambin . . . Re Divin, Re Divin . . ."_

The voice was a soothing alto, quiet and a balm for Tsuna's hurting soul.

_"Fa la nanna bel Bambino . . . Re Divin, Re Divin . . . Fa la nanna bel Bambino."_

Slowly, Tsuna felt his hysteria leave him as his eyelids drooped in exhaustion. G continued to rock them back and forth, and before long the elusive sleep claimed Tsuna once more.

_"Close your eyes my sweet treasure . . . Sweet love, sweet love . . . Go to sleep on my heart . . ."_

* * *

**_fifty-two weeks, two days_ **

* * *

The first time Tsuna woke up completely lucid, his head was aching almost as much as his parched throat. Almost, but not quite.

Confused, the young child moved his heavy head to take in his surroundings, wincing at his stiff neck as he did so. He . . . was on a bed, in a room. A rented room? Tsuna couldn't completely recognize where they were. Immediately, cold panic welled up in his chest, and Tsuna would have all but jumped out of the bed if he didn't hear a soft mumble.

Tsuna looked down. A redhead laid collapsed at the edge of his bed. Tsuna frowned as he, squinting against the bright light, took in his friend's image.

G looked quite awful. His skin was pale and clammy, and shadows ringed his eyes as if he was a panda bear. Reaching out to touch the limp red hair, Tsuna was startled when G blinked open his eyes and looked up at him.

"G-Giotto!" Immediately, G sat up and scooted toward him. Tsuna blinked, confused and with slight amusement, as the redhead immediately pressed a palm to his forehead.

After a few moments, G sat back onto his chair with a relieved sigh. "You're still a bit too warm, but your fever completely broke."

"Fever?" Tsuna asked in surprise. He had been sick? Was that why his friend looked so ragged?

"You don't remember?" G questioned with a growing frown.

Tsuna blinked, trying to recall his last moments before he had woken up on the bed. They . . . were making a stop at the small town because night had fallen. It had rained the day before, so Tsuna had really been craving a warm bath to chase the cold out of his bones. And after Tsuna had picked a hotel . . .

His memory went a bit fuzzy after that.

"The last thing I remember is leading you into the hotel," Tsuna said contemplatively before the blonde sighed. "I got sick from the rain, didn't I?"

G nodded, eyes tracking his every movement attentively. "You just suddenly collapsed with a fever. I've been taking care of you ever since."

"Oh . . ." Tsuna said quietly as he looked his friend over again. G really did look so tired. "I'm sorry."

The redhead shook his head, and Tsuna pretended he didn't see his trembling lips or misty red eyes as the older pulled him into a desperate hug.

"No . . . I'm just glad you're fine, Giotto."

* * *

_**fifty-eight weeks, three days** _

* * *

The stars twinkled merrily as the wilderness got ready to settle down for the night. Both boys lay cuddled in their temporary shelter, a small cave they had found when Tsuna had been searching for a water source.

Not for the first time, Tsuna cursed his clumsiness and the fact that he had lightly twisted his left ankle. If he didn't, they would be resting at a hotel in the next village instead of sleeping in the cold forest once again!

Well, at least his ankle wasn't hurting _that_ bad. If all went well, he would be up and limping by tomorrow.

With a quiet hum, G wrapped his arms around Tsuna as the younger snuggled into his chest. The younger sighed in contentment at the warmth his friend provided. It was quite cold that night and G had been beyond worry that the blonde would get sick again. Tsuna didn't even have the confidence to assure the redhead that he would be fine. Who knew that the amazing Vongola Primo had such a weak immune system?

"Giotto?"

A quiet whisper tickled Tsuna's ear as he rolled over. "Yes?"

". . . Are you afraid?" G's red eyes pierced through the darkness and shone like the stars as he studied him. Tsuna blinked at the question, thinking it over.

Was he afraid now? He had been terrified when he had first woken up on faithful day number one. He had been hysterical when he found a dying G. But now? Was Tsuna afraid as he and G hopped from one place to another, after they had been driven out of their home?

The answer . . . was startling clear.

"No, G, I'm not afraid," Tsuna said softly as he tilted his head up, looking into blazing red eyes resolutely.

"I'm not afraid when I have you with me."

* * *

_**sixty-three weeks, five days** _

* * *

"We're finally here!" Tsuna exclaimed with relief and happiness as both he and his companion were ushered into the gates of the large city.

G frowned good naturedly as he absently reached out to hold Tsuna's hand. The place was crowded, after all. "We could have stayed at the inn yesterday, but you were the one who insisted to make it here today."

Tsuna blushed slightly at the reproachful tone before he stuck out his tongue childishly. It wasn't _his_ fault that his Intuition had all but demanded him to get to the city that day. Well, that wasn't completely true. His Intuition warned him that if he didn't make it to the city, his life would get harder. So Tsuna had pushed their pace to make it that day. After all, if there was one lesson Reborn had made sure he'll never forget, it was to listen to his Hyper Intuition.

"You were the one who complained about that inn's food," Tsuna said with a pout as he pulled his friend forward. G rolled his eyes, half-heartedly grumbling under his breath as he followed.

"Find inn. Find food. Find bed. And in that order." The redhead ordered as he allowed himself to be led. Tsuna hummed in agreement as he focused on the feeling in his chest.

Left path or right path?

. . . Ah, right path it was, Tsuna thought as he grimaced when his heart lurched in unease at the mere idea of going left. Tugging G along, Tsuna did this procedure several times before both boys found themselves in front of a homey looking inn.

"Y'know, I still find it quite creepy how you could do that," G commented as they pushed open the doors and walked in. A busty and pretty lady made her way over.

"Oh, hello there," the woman said with a warm smile. "Can we help you?"

G stepped in front of his friend before he graced their would-be hostess with a sweet smile. "Yes, Ma'am. May we have a room for two and for two meals to be brought up?"

Digging into his pouch of money, G pulled out a gold coin. The lady's eyes widened even as she smiled professionally.

"Of course, little guests," The woman handed G a key as she took the offered coin. "Your room will be room number G02. Please enjoy your stay."

Smiling again in thanks, G grabbed his friend's hand and pulled him up the stairs and into the room they were given. After shutting the door, G immediately turned around to dissect the blonde's expression.

"So," G said as he crossed his arms. "Is she really going to let us stay or is she going to report us as thieves?"

Tsuna smiled as his Intuition immediately provided him with the answer. "She won't report us. If she would, I doubt I would have led us here."

It was true. Tsuna wondered if Giotto, the _original_ Giotto, had once used his Hyper Intuition in the same way Tsuna did. After all, it had saved them a whole heck of trouble. With his Intuition, Tsuna always led the both of them to an establishment that would treat both kids well. There hadn't been a single time where either of them were robbed or kicked out.

"Of course," G said as he cracked a smile and relaxed. Both boys cleaned themselves up and took a bath before dressing up in a new change of clean clothes that had been helpfully brought up along with their dinners.

The room only had one bed ("We'll bring a spare bed up later," the Matron promised apologetically), and before long the lights were out and both boys were snuggled under the blankets. Tsuna sighed blissfully at the soft bed and his friend's warmth. In his past life, Tsuna had totally taken beds for granted. He was never going to make that mistake again.

". . . Giotto?"

Tsuna's eyes opened reluctantly at G's quiet whisper. "What's wrong?"

"Ah, I was just wondering," G hummed quietly as the redhead turned around to face him. "Why you were so adamant about coming to the Città Bovina?"

Tsuna blinked at the question before he pursed his lips. G had never questioned his Hyper Intuition's reasoning before. And to be honest, Tsuna hadn't questioned it before too. Questioning his Intuition felt as stupid as asking if the sky was blue.

". . . I don't know," Tsuna admitted softly as he prodded his Intuition to no avail. "I just felt that we needed to."

G sent him a searching look before he snorted as the redhead buried his face back into the covers. "Forget I asked then. Before you lose sleep thinking about it."

Tsuna blinked before his lips quirk up into a small smile. Snuggling against his friend, Tsuna closed his eyes and relaxed.

_Thank you for believing in me._

* * *

_**sixty-four weeks, one day** _

* * *

"Are we going to leave any time soon?" G asked his friend as both kids walked down a path leisurely. It had been a few days since they arrived in the city, and Tsuna had finally managed to drag his friend out to do some exploring.

Tsuna blinked, tilting his head before he shrugged. "I'm not too sure yet. My Intuition's being awfully quiet lately."

G's red eyes narrowed at the blonde's words began he began to scan Tsuna's face. "Quiet? You're not getting sick again are you?"

The redhead's hands twitched upwards as if he wanted to slap one onto his companion's head. Tsuna resisted the urge to giggle. Or sigh.

It was a valid concern. Tsuna's Hyper Intuition, while quite helpful, had never warned Tsuna about getting sick or something like that. Thus every time the younger got sick, and mind you it happened more times than you would think, it always took both of them by surprise.

"No," Tsuna said as he shook his head, making sure to direct a reassuring smile at his already worrying big brother figure. "I don't feel sick."

"Are you sure . . . ?" G frowned, giving the younger another once over before relenting. After nursing the blonde back to health multiple times, G had gotten rather good at telling if Tsuna was ill again.

"Where do you want to go today?" The redhead asked with a sigh, changing the subject. Tsuna beamed at the offered olive branch before taking it gratefully.

Chirping, Tsuna twirled around. "Somewhere that sells chocolate!"

"Chocolate?" G repeated in amusement as Tsuna puffed up his cheeks in mock anger. Planting his hands on his hips and huffing quietly, the younger nodded as he pointed to a small sweet stand.

"Like there! I'm really craving for some chocolate today!" Tsuna said with a smile, the pout already gone when G showed no resistance to the idea.

The older shook his head even as he began walking toward the sweet stand. "You and your sweet tooth will make us go bankrupt."

"Ehhh?" Tsuna blinked before flailing slightly. "No, you would make sure I won't spend our money all on chocolate, won't you G?"

The redhead chuckled as he stepped up to the stand and looked at the choices. "Of course. So, what do you want?"

Tsuna peeked at the stand, ignoring the soft cooing from the teenage girl manning it. All the sweets looked absolutely delectable, and Tsuna really didn't know how to choose just one . . .

"Miss," Tsuna said as he looked up to beam a sparkly smile at the girl. "What would you recommend?"

The girl squealed softly at the cute sight before taking a deep breath and professionally looking down at the sweets. "Hmm, how about this?"

"Slightly grape-flavoured chocolate," The girl said with a smile as she held up a piece. "Our Lord's son, who is as young as you, seems to love it!"

Tsuna ignored the pang at the thought of grapes and his Lightening Guardian. His Intuition flared slightly at the thoughts even as Tsuna tried to push them out of his mind. Smiling and tilting his head to the side in confusion, Tsuna blinked. "The Lord's son?"

The teenager giggled again, professionalism melting away when G took the offered sweet and gave it to Tsuna. "Yes! Lord Bovina's son, Lampo!"

* * *

**{chapter iv end}**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song G was singing is an Italian Children's Song called "Dormi, dormi, bel Bambin". It is a Christmas Carol and the lines G sung could be translated to this:
> 
>  
> 
> _"Dormi, dormi bel Bambin . . . Re Divin, Re Divin . . ."_  
> 
> 
> Sleep, sleep beautiful child. King Divine, King Divine.
> 
>  
> 
> _"Fa la nanna bel Bambino . . . Re Divin, Re Divin . . . Fa la nanna bel Bambino."_  
> 
> 
> Go to sleep, pretty child. King Divine, King Divine. Go to sleep, pretty child.
> 
> As this is an old children's song, I believe that this is something considered as public property (like Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars) and therefore it won't be copyrighted. Do tell me if that's not the case, though! 


	5. chapter v

**{chapter v}**

* * *

_In a different universe, Lampo would have meet fifteen-year old Giotto, the fledging boss of a new vigilante group, at one of his father's many dinner parties._

_In a different universe, Lampo would be years younger than Giotto, and would forever look up to him as his little brother and charge._

_In a different universe, Giotto would take in Lampo into his dear Family and give the young boy the title of his Shield, yet pray that he will never need his child Lightening's powers―_

.

.

.

_―But, this was not that universe, and thus a different story unfolds._

* * *

_**sixty-three weeks, seven days** _

* * *

"You and your sweets . . ."

G grumbled good-naturedly as he followed him on the path to the sweets stand. Giving his friend a wry look, Tsuna mentally sighed as he weaved his way through the crowds of people.

The older boy had promptly freaked out when Tsuna lost all the colour in his face upon hearing the name of Primo's Lightening. Without even letting the blonde say a proper thanks to the girl manning the stand, Tsuna was immediately ushered home by an increasingly frantic G and was forced onto his bed, despite his many reassurances of being just fine.

Really! And Reborn used to accuse _him_ of being a worry wart!

"Not my fault you ate all the chocolate we bought from last time," the blonde muttered with a small pout. After all, when he had woken up after his (forced) nap, all the sweets they had bought were gone!

G sighed, as if _Tsuna_ was the one being difficult. "Sick people shouldn't eat sweets."

"I wasn't sick!" Tsuna argued to no avail as his friend just ignored him again. Sure, he might have paled a little bit in surprise, but that was completely normal and didn't mean anything. Tsuna had just been surprised that he didn't put everything together sooner. Because, really. Bovino Lambo? Bovina Lampo? Surely Tsuna wasn't really as slow as Reborn declared him to be . . .

But maybe that was what his Intuition had been guiding him to in the first place, and why Tsuna had felt such a strong urge to go to Città Bovina. After all, his Hyper Intuition was what had first guided the blonde to his dear Storm.

Looking up and mentally shaking his head to rid him of his wandering thoughts, Tsuna smiled as he neared the sweets stand. It was quite crowded that day, and the pretty teenager manning the stand from last time looked near frantic at the long line of customers. Mentally apologizing to the poor flustered girl, Tsuna was just about to drag his friend to line up themselves when everything suddenly―

_Blood. Blood. Blood. Sinking its deathly teeth into everything like sharks. It was on their green hair, creating images of bastardized roses as red spilled on pale skin, glistening like ruby gems. Humanoid shapes toppled into view, eyes no longer seeing and mouths still open in a silent scream . . ._

_Nononono get me out get me out getmeoutplease!_

―changed.

". . . otto?"

Before his very eyes, the world suddenly slowed down as Tsuna's breath stuttered to a halt in his chest. Tsuna froze immediately in disbelief as everything began to spin.

"Gi . . . to . . .!"

Head spiking with new-found pain, Tsuna could barely contain his wince as his Intuition suddenly _flared_ with crippling anxiety. Other than the day Tsuna had found G almost dying, that was one of the biggest warnings his Hyper Intuition had ever given him in his new world.

Something was wrong. Something was oh, so, _so_ wrong.

"Giotto!"

And then Tsuna was slapped out of his funk. Literally.

Face whipping to the side by the force of the blow, Tsuna blinked startled and finally clear eyes before looking up and seeing G. The redhead looked extremely upset, red eyes almost glowing on his suddenly paler skin. Seeing his friend was finally responding, G reached over, grabbing one of Giotto's hands and placing it over his own chest.

"Giotto. Follow me and breathe."

It was only then did Tsuna realize that he was feeling more than a little bit faint-headed . . . probably because he was no longer taking in any oxygen. Letting out the dead air stuck in his lungs in a big whoosh, Tsuna tried to time his own breathing with G's, obediently breathing rhythmically.

"That's good," G said praised soothingly. "In and out."

His head swirled again and Tsuna blinked tiredly.

The blonde ended up sitting halfway on G's lap, his head inclining on his friend's chest as his limbs shook from frazzled nerves. Following his good judgement, G had pulled Tsuna in an empty alleyway and out of anyone's sight when he realized his friend had suddenly froze. Thankfully, because of that Tsuna didn't accidentally make a scene in the busy marketplace.

"Okay now?" The redhead patted his back gently as he watched the younger calm down. Finally, feeling some semblance of his self-control slipping back, Tsuna pulled himself away to face his friend with a nod.

"G," Tsuna began as he organized his chaotic thoughts. "We have to look for something."

G raised an eyebrow, looking immediately upset at Tsuna's words. "Now? You think I'll let you go prancing around now? I just want to get you home so you can lie down."

_Green eyes stared at him pleadingly, fat tears slipping from his eyes like translucent pearls . . ._

"No!" Tsuna shook his head, trying to look as assertive as possible. "We have to find him right now."

"Him?" G frowned deeper, scanning Tsuna's face before the redhead reluctantly relented and got up. The blonde smiled at his friend's non-verbal agreement before he was carefully helped up by G himself.

Wryly, Tsuna mused that he still didn't get to eat any sweets that day.

* * *

_**sixty-four weeks, two days** _

* * *

_Sleep," G whispered quietly as he caught the empty bowl that slipped through Tsuna's limp hands. Blinking at the redhead wearily, Tsuna felt his suddenly heavy head touch his pillow (when did he get to his bed?) and gentle hands tucking him in._

_The world flickered and objects turned distorted._

_Tsuna chewed on his lip as his panic faded to the back of his mind and his fatigue increased ten-fold. He suddenly felt so, so tired. Would closing his eyes really be so wrong? He would only be resting them, just for a short while, and then Tsuna would go back to searching the city._

_Just for a short while._

_"Sleep," G's voice floated around again. With an inaudible sigh, Tsuna's eyes flickered shut and he obeyed._

.

.

.

Tsuna was upset.

No, scratch that. Tsuna was beyond upset. He was angry and worried and annoyed and the blonde really, _really_ needed some strawberry shortcake.

"Hey."

A warm hand clasped his shoulder, just as he began to wheeze.

"Giotto, calm down. We'll find whoever you're looking for."

Ahh, at least Tsuna still had his surprisingly patient Storm with him. Tsuna didn't know what he would do if he didn't.

Actually, he did know. Tsuna would probably be lying dead in a ditch somewhere without his trusty redhead. Despite all his training, Reborn never managed to beat out all of Tsuna's suicidal tendencies, at least when it concerned the well-being of his family.

After they had searched for two hours, Tsuna still couldn't get his Intuition to give him any more hints to help him. In fact, his Hyper Intuition had felt completely dead, and if it wasn't for the faint hum of his Sky Flames beneath his skin Tsuna would be freaking out.

Looking literally dead on his feet after their fruitless search, Tsuna was then promptly dragged back to their Inn despite his protests. After that, G all but mothered him before forcing the younger into taking a 'short nap'.

That 'nap' lasted the entire day and a bit more. The blonde was currently suspicious of G drugging him, but, well, were there even sleeping pills in their time? Or maybe G had bought some herbs that promoted drowsiness when Tsuna wasn't looking? Because Tsuna did remember eating some porridge G had given him before everything went fuzzy and time flew like crazy. After all, Tsuna had just woken up a few minutes ago, feeling well-rested but immediately hysterical when he realized _just_ how much time he had wasted by _sleeping_.

With a quiet sigh, Tsuna leaned into his Storm. He couldn't even get mad at his older companion, even if it was his fault. G had clearly done whatever he did for Tsuna's benefit.

"I know, G, I'm just worried―"

And then, for the first time since his last freak episode, Tsuna's Intuition made its reappearance. Stilling at the sudden tingling feeling, Tsuna grabbed G's hand before dragging the startled boy right out of the house.

All the noises around him disappeared as Tsuna focused on his Intuition. From the bustling people on the street to his friend's worried questions, everything faded.

Except for his Intuition's orders.

Turn right.

Turn left.

Turn right.

Turn right.

Go straight.

They arrived at a dead end in one of the dark alleyways. G fingered his gun carefully as red eyes darted around, looking bewildered and worried but still attentive. Tsuna focused on the Feeling again, waiting for more instructions but receiving none. Had he taken a wrong turn or something?

_Shish_.

One of the garbage cans suddenly trembled. Both Tsuna's and G's eyes immediately snapped toward it.

. . . No. No, Tsuna didn't make a mistake.

Taking a cautious step forward and ignoring G's choked sound of alarm, Tsuna swiftly reached over and plucked the blanket right off the top of the can.

Wide, quivering green eyes stared at Tsuna. The blonde's heart immediately broke a bit at the pure pain and anguish in those expressive eyes.

Well, in the very least Tsuna finally found what he was looking for. In fact, you could say it was _jackpot_.

* * *

_**sixty-four weeks, three days** _

* * *

_He remembers sticky, sticky fingers and choking sobs._ His _sobs_.

_The small hands were no longer covered in candy or snot like what a nervous five-year old Lambo was prone to do. No, these hands were bigger than the toddler hands from before, strong enough to protect his family and riddled with scars from attempts that had succeeded._

_They were also limp. And sticky. Sticky, not from fruit juice and candy, but from body juices. Covered in disgusting redredredred―_

_No._ No. _Please, no._

_Glassy green eyes, blood drenched black hair. Broken horns, a mouth opened in a soundless scream._

_Blood. Blood everywhere._

_Why? Why did it have to be him? For his life to be cut short?_

_"No . . ."_

_It was their dear youngest. Their annoying but sweet Lightening child._

_Their Lambo._

_Gone._

_Forever._

_And it was_ all his fault.

.

.

.

Tsuna woke up in the dead of the night, valiantly choking down his violent sobs.

Thankfully, though Tsuna was starting to doubt it himself, G apparently _wasn't_ an all-knowing psychic and still hadn't developed a 'boss-radar' like Hayato once did. Thus, the older boy continued to sleep peacefully on their shared bed, completely unaware of Tsuna's utter distress.

They had given the other bed in the room to little Lampo. Tsuna had been surprised to see that the green-haired boy looked as old as he did himself, maybe even older. Heck, he was just as tall as Tsuna himself! Where was the five-year old crybaby who only reached his waist in height?

. . . Then again, this was Lampo. Not Lambo. Not Tsuna's dear Lightening. This was Giotto's youngest Guardian . . . this wasn't _him_ , despite all their similarities.

Wavy green hair framed Lampo's face, reminiscent of adult Lambo's hairstyle. A thunderbolt ―tattoo? birthmark? scar?― lay under his right eye, bringing out the sparkle in his bright green eyes.

_Sparkling green eyes now turned dead . . .stopdon'tthinkaboutthat―_

Unfortunately, Lampo had fainted when the Lightening had freaked out at the sight of Tsuna and G, thus knocking the can he was in down and resulting in the boy cracking his head on the ground. Tsuna was just praying that the big bruise on the greenhead's forehead was all the damage Lampo had unwittingly dealt to himself. In the very least, according to G the boy didn't have a concussion.

G had been surprised when Tsuna announced that Lampo was the one he had been looking for. Although reluctant to bring him back to their shared room, one flash of Tsuna's puppy-eyes and the older boy hesitantly caved. The two friends then smuggled the child back to their temporary home, the secrecy something Tsuna's Intuition urged to be necessary.

A quiet whimper threw Tsuna out of his wandering thoughts. Looking up blearily, Tsuna was surprised to see that the boy he was thinking about on the other bed was wide-awake and sitting up, shivering violently under the covers.

"Are you okay?" Tsuna asked quietly, wincing when the greenhead yelped in surprise and turned to his direction with a scared look. At the noise, G rolled fitfully to his other side in his sleep, and only leaning closer as a human-sized Sky Flame plush calmed the older back into oblivion.

"Who . . ." Lampo quivered like a leaf on a windy day. Tsuna felt his heart bleed for the child. "Who are you? What . . .where did you take Lampo?"

Oh no. As sorry as Tsuna was for all but kidnapping the other child, explaining why Tsuna had the sudden urge to squirrel the greenhead away to safety was not something he wanted to explain before daybreak.

Blinking tiredly, Tsuna chewed on his lower lip in contemplation before he carefully extracted himself from G's limbs. Quietly padding over to Lampo's bed, Tsuna ignored the other's tensed muscles and suppressed fear as he climbed onto it and enveloped the greenhead into a warm hug.

"Don't worry and just sleep," Tsuna said softly, working his uncooperative flames to give the child some peace. Despite not being as effectively soothing as Rain Flames, Tsuna smiled as the note of fear in Lampo's eyes completely disappeared, the child all but sagging as he snuggled into the blonde's arms. With a quiet yawn and a little more coaxing from Tsuna's flames, Lampo finally fell blissfully asleep.

Tsuna let out a triumph grin. Sky Harmony was a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Burying his face into green hair, Tsuna breathed out slowly as he followed the Lightening's way into dreamland. "With us, for now you're safe Lampo."

"You're safe."

* * *

_**sixty-four weeks, four days** _

* * *

G was Not Impressed the next morning when he woke up and realized that his blond friend had disappeared. One small panic attack later, the oldest boy stared blankly at the puppy pile on the other bed, feeling both a bit left out and slightly amused.

Miraculously, both kids on the other bed had completely slept through G's freak out. Granted, he had only got to silently hyperventilating before he found his friend, but it was still quite a surprise. After all, Giotto had always been hyper aware of his friend's feelings and when G needed some comfort. For his Intuition to not wake the blonde up, the younger must have been much more tired than G had originally thought.

Getting out of bed reluctantly because he was the only one awake, G freshened up before going out of the room to ask for two big servings of breakfast ("Yes, Ma'am, Giotto is feeling better now, but he is really famished . . . "). Then again, G didn't really mind playing butler if it meant that Giotto would get to sleep a bit longer. The blonde had looked so bedraggled lately that G was afraid he'll fall sick.

When the redhead returned with breakfast, he was amused to see both of his younger companions awake yet still cuddling under the blankets. Shaking his head wryly, G set down the trays of food with a gusty sigh.

"We're keeping him, aren't we?"

* * *

_**sixty-five weeks, one day** _

* * *

_Violent flames, not his gentle ones, filled their sight while accompanied by a chorus of inhumane screams._

"Giotto! _Behind you_!"

Without even bothering to finish the punch Tsuna would have given to his opponent, a gangly man with wiry black hair, the small blonde immediately dropped to his feet.

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

Rapid-fire gunshots rang in the air as G breathed heavily, one hand held out protectively in front of a quivering Lampo as the other expertly wielded his gun. Tsuna immediately got up from his crouched position, sacrificing a quick second to grimly wipe away soot and dirt from his face before the blonde lunged at the last person from the group who had ambushed them.

" _Merda_ , you mother-fucker―!" Taking advantage of his opponent's temporary shock at seeing his comrades get shot, Tsuna put all his measly weight behind his punch to the face before using his other hand to press a pressure point.

The man dropped like a dead fly.

From behind him, Lampo whimpered softly again and Tsuna forcefully made himself relax. Carefully averting his eyes from what must have been a gruesome scene, Tsuna made his way painfully back to the group.

"ARGHHH!" Strangled screams cut into the air before petering into incoherent sobbing. Desperate pleas for mercy.

. . .

Tsuna didn't dare look back at the fallen bodies of the people who ambushed them. If he did, he would have no doubt lost the last meal in his stomach, and they didn't have enough food for Tsuna to be wasting it like that.

_The sky was a dark mirror of the ground, dyed a bloody red with no clouds in sight._

Tsuna and his friends were all exhausted. Ignoring the muscles that were twinging in discomfort and the deep bone-weary fatigue was almost a second habit now. Over the last few days, their lives had completely flipped. Travelling even metres in the war zone city proved to be extremely difficult.

It was under these dire circumstances did Tsuna come to realize something quite important; he was no longer in the past of his own world. It was either that, or the Vongola History books Reborn had given him to memorize were complete fakes.

In his universe, according to his textbooks, Lampo was supposed to meet Giotto when he was at least ten and at his father's party. After that, slowly but surely the youngest Guardian would become involved with the Vongola and before long the then-teen would be sworn in as Giotto's Lightening.

However, in this world, something like that would clearly not happen. After all . . .

.

.

.

_"All d-dead?" Tsuna asked, eyes blown wide in disbelief. Lampo, the poor child, buried his teary face back into his arms as he let out a quiet sob of confirmation._

_G frowned with slight sympathy, looking both wary and much older than his age as he unconsciously caressed the gun strapped to his waist. "For them to quietly kill off everyone in Lord Bovina's castle and keep the massacre completely under wraps . . . who are they?"_

_Tsuna was stuck on a different thought, one that made his pale face turn even more whiter. "If Lampo didn't escape his guards that day to go to the sweets stand, he'll also be . . ." Blanching at the horrifying thought, Tsuna tightened his arms around the greenhead as the boy shivered minutely._

_It's okay. Lampo was alive and well, in his arms and breathing. It's okay._

_G sighed at his shaken friend before getting up, ignoring Lampo's minute flinch as the oldest boy grabbed their map and spread it out in front of Tsuna once again._

_"We can't stay here any more," the redhead stated as he looked at his confused and upset blonde friend. "It's too risky, especially if they realize that not everybody in the castle was killed."_

_With a grim smile, G patted the map._

_"So choose, Giotto. Where are we going next?"_

.

.

.

"No major injuries?" Tsuna asked tiredly once he got back to his group. G nodded in confirmation as the older boy wiped away the blood from a shallow cut on his face before promptly hustling all three of them into a small groove between the alleyways.

"We're good," the redhead said as he grabbed shaking Lampo's hand and began pulling him forward once again. "No more enemies?"

Tsuna closed his eyes and concentrated on his Intuition. A subtle wave of agreement washed over him and Tsuna's shoulders slumped as he nodded in relief. "At least for an hour."

Unfortunately, despite Tsuna's Intuition already giving them an advance warning, they were still too late in getting out of the city before all hell broke loose. Even Tsuna was caught surprised at the speed of their enemies' movements. After all, only half an hour had passed after Tsuna had picked their next destination, a nice port far away, when thugs began to stream the streets and fresh blood was used to decorate the stone floors.

There was death.

There was blood.

There was chaos.

With the sheer carnage the once lively city had quickly turned into, Tsuna was starting to believe that it was the same group who had done away their Town. The similarities in the destruction were uncanny.

Breathing in slightly and mentally wincing at the metallic tang in the air, Tsuna leaned against the wall in fatigue.

By now, their group had slowly but steadily moved to the city edges. Any opponents in their path were quickly dealt with, and the other time was spent keeping to the shadows. Tsuna had been pushing them that day, once again because of his Intuition. All he knew from the waves of fear was that they needed to get out that day, or else they may not get out at all . . .

"Giotto," a hand shook his shoulder and Tsuna snapped to attention. Looking up, the blonde was almost unsurprised to see G looking at him worriedly. It was starting to seem like the default expression G had set aside specifically for him.

"Giotto," G repeated as he helped his weary friend up. "Should we take a break? You look ready to kneel over." Lampo hovered worriedly beside the redhead, looking just as upset as the older boy when Tsuna stubbornly shook his head.

"There's no time for that. We need to get out as soon as possible," Tsuna explained, tapping the side of his forehead to indicate it was his Intuition's demand.

G grimaced before acquiescing, stopping his mother-henning (which Lampo continued; Tsuna found it quite amusing how the youngest seemed to have picked up G's habit of fussing over him subtly) as he peered out from their hiding spot. "By 'as soon as possible' you mean 'today or else', right?"

Tsuna giggled softly, feeling rather half-hysterical despite himself. "Oh, G, you know me so well."

The redhead rolled his eyes and even Lampo cracked a small smile.

"Of course," G said with a rueful grin. "Now let's go. We're at the City fences already."

* * *

_**sixty-five weeks, three days** _

* * *

". . . otto?"

_Electric green eyes peered up at him happily as Tsuna gave the boy on his lap a noogie. Laughing, the child leaned into his hand even as he sprouted half-hearted protests._

"Gio . . . ?"

_Electric green eyes burned as they stared at the mangled body of their dear female Mist. The boy trembled violently beside him and hugging him fiercely was all Tsuna could do in the midst of his own grief._

". . . iot . . .?"

_Green eyes, no longer electric nor alive, stared at him brokenly. Tsuna felt scorching bile rise in his throat as he stared at the child, no, the body. His Lightening was_ dead, _because Tsuna failed to protect him―_

"Giotto!"

Tsuna startled awake, jerking upwards just in time to smack with something hard.

"Ow!" A voice yelped.

Yeah, 'ow' was a good description to describe the pain in Tsuna's forehead. Rubbing it gently, Tsuna sighed at his own carelessness before . . .

. . . Wait. Tsuna was not the one who said 'ow' . . .

The blonde hurriedly looked up to the sight of a green-haired child sitting on the ground and rubbing his forehead, fat tears in his eyes. Scrambling to untangle himself from his blankets, Tsuna rushed over to their youngest.

"Lampo?! It's so late! Why aren't you asleep?"

Lampo looked down, shuffling slightly. "Lampo woke up and couldn't fall back asleep . . ."

Tsuna blinked before sighing. G was currently awake and had watch shift, but of course Lampo would come to Tsuna instead. Even if Tsuna's shift was starting soon. Though Tsuna had his Hyper Intuition, both G and him were too wary to completely rely on it. It didn't help that Tsuna's Intuition seemed to disappear at random. Thus, both boys decided to create watch shifts at night.

Technically, Lampo would be incorporated into these shifts, but Tsuna was worried since Lampo never had to stay up late before. Adding in how G didn't trust their youngest yet, their night shifts didn't change even days after they had gotten out of the bloody city.

Patting the spot beside him, Tsuna shuffled over a bit to let Lampo lie down with him. Concentrating on his Flames, Tsuna enveloped their cuddle spot with a good dose of Harmony and watched fondly as Lampo immediately yawned. Snuggling closer to the warm body, Tsuna let his own eyes flicker shut.

"Good night, Giotto . . ."

He didn't have any more nightmares for the rest of his sleep.

* * *

_**sixty-five weeks, six days** _

* * *

Tsuna caught G's wandering gaze and raised an eyebrow. The redhead shrugged back helplessly as he gave Tsuna a look. The blonde sighed.

Of _course_ G would leave everything regarding feelings to him. Waving his hand impatiently to prompt G to walk farther away to give them some space, Tsuna made his way over to the abnormally quiet Lampo.

"Lampo?" They've made their escape from the city a few days ago, and were now discreetly travelling as far away as possible in the direction of the sea port. Though Tsuna's Intuition had warned them in advance, the ragtag group of kids didn't have as much supplies as they did when G and Tsuna had first set out. Many supplies they had packed were destroyed or lost in their scuffles, so the three kids only had the bare minimum to survive.

But now, as they finally found themselves beside a creek, they didn't need any more necessities. Fish had been caught the day before, and water was plentiful. Thus, the two older boys had some breathing space to deal with their next problem.

Lampo's mental state.

Even if Lampo wasn't an exact copy of Tsuna's Lambo, Tsuna _had_ met Giotto's Lightening Guardian before in his world and he had a good idea of how the childish boy acted. That was why Tsuna could safely say that the boy was acting nothing like his usual spoiled self.

In fact, Lampo was being uncharacteristically sombre. Tsuna had more than an inkling why, but the child had refused to talk about it. The blonde had agreed back then because the greenhead had been so distraught, but now . . .

Tsuna hadn't thought that Lampo would deal with his grief like this. He refused to let the youngest bottle his feelings up! It wasn't healthy to be so emotionless.

"Yes, Giotto?" Lampo asked quietly, raising his head to meet Tsuna's worried eyes. With a quiet sigh, Tsuna sat down and tugged Lampo down with him.

"You're not okay, are you Lampo?"

The greenhead's breathing hitched. Tsuna waited patiently for what seemed like hours before he felt the child beside him tremble.

"Giotto . . ." Lampo whispered softly. Brokenly. "Mama had been pregnant."

Tsuna felt his heart break at the deadened tone of Lampo's voice. The slightly older blonde reached over to pull the younger into a hug.

"Mama was pregnant," Lampo repeated softly as he shuddered in Tsuna's arms. "Lampo was going to be a big brother . . . but now . . ."

"Oh, Lampo," Tsuna whispered softly as the dam finally broke. Hot tears dripped down the greenhead's face as the boy cried for his lost family.

"Giotto," Lampo sobbed. "Lampo is never going to see them again, right?"

G melted stepped out of the shadows before immediately making his way to Tsuna's side. Falling to his knees, the oldest wrapped both crying kids ―Tsuna had started crying too in the face of his dear Lightening's pain― in a warm hug.

"No," Tsuna said softly as he buried his head into G's neck. "No, Lampo, you won't see them again. They will watch over you, but for now you will have us."

G spoke up for the first time, his voice gruff but kind. "Yeah, brat. We'll be your family, so stop crying."

The redhead paused, before sighing in fond exasperation. "And I mean both of you."

"Stop crying."

* * *

**_sixty-six weeks, four days_ **

* * *

"Should we go?" G asked his blond friend as they peered at the scene from their vantage point on the hill.

Lampo pouted. "Please, Giotto? Lampo really wants some sweets!"

Tsuna frowned and focused on his currently unhelpful Intuition. There were no ill feelings or warnings for a sudden catastrophe, that Tsuna could tell. Lampo had made vast leaps from the depressed child he had been before, so he did deserve a treat. And really, Tsuna wanted some sweets too . . .

Biting his lip, Tsuna took a deep breath before throwing all caution to the wind. "I think it's okay. We need to restock on supplies anyway . . ."

It was true. Though both Tsuna and G had given some of their extra clothing to Lampo, they needed much more for the changing seasons. In addition to that, G was almost out of bullets while Tsuna had broken and lost two of his daggers. They also needed to find a weapon for Lampo as well. Though Tsuna hated to make their youngest fight, it was impossible for both G and him to always protect Lampo without fail.

In a perfect world, something like that may happen. However, this was not a perfect world.

"Great," G said with a rare smile before he slid down the hill. Letting out a laugh of surprise, Tsuna followed him as he tugged a shrieking-in-laughter Lampo behind him.

The village they had stumbled upon was small but warm. Everyone in the streets seemed to know each other, and it soon became apparent that laughter in the air was common. A grand church stood in the middle of the place, while small but homey houses lined the streets. Lampo watched everything with wide eyes as Giotto held his hand, following the redhead who skirted through the crowds.

"Should we split up?" Tsuna asked when he realized that G didn't want to follow his Intuition like he usually did. G slowed to a stop before turning around, frowning.

"I don't like leaving you alone," the redhead admitted slowly instead of answering Tsuna's question. "You're like a human trouble-magnet."

Tsuna's indignant cry was promptly ignored as Lampo pouted childishly, even as his green eyes glinted with seriousness.

"What is Lampo," the greenhead whined softly. "Air?"

G hesitated before he sighed and nodded "Fine. We'll meet at the church in two hours? Don't lose him, okay stupid brat?"

G and Lampo shared a look ―they shared a look!― while Tsuna pouted in the background. It was a miracle. G trusted Lampo enough to hand Tsuna's well-being over to him. Tsuna was the one older than the Lightening! Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Giving a lazy wave, the redhead soon disappeared into the crowd. Stamping down the sudden irrational fear at the sight of his friend leaving, Tsuna turned to the youngest with a shaky smile.

"Clothes, weapons, and then some sweets. Okay?"

Lampo beamed, eyeing Tsuna's smile but thankfully letting him off. "As long as we get grape-flavoured yummies!"

Tsuna giggled, this time less fake. "Of course."

* * *

"He's late," Tsuna said worriedly as he paced in front of the church. Lampo chewed softly on his lip as he had finished his chocolate covered raisins ages ago.

"Lampo's sure the pink guy is fine, Giotto," the boy said childishly, even as he fidgeted. Tsuna, hearing the growing hysteria in his younger friend's voice, immediately stamped down the urge to run off blindly before he sat down beside Lampo.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna smiled as confidently as possible to ease the greenhead's nerves. "Yeah, you're right. G is strong, he probably just lost track of time."

_Creaaaaak_.

Before Lampo could reply, the giant doors to the church opened and Tsuna blinked as he saw a familiar redhead rush down the stairs. Bolting to his feet, Tsuna all but flew over to G as he quickly checked for injuries. Lampo followed at a more sedate pace.

"G!" Tsuna exclaimed in relief when he found nothing wrong with his friend. "You're late! We were so worried!"

"Gyahahaha, Lord Lampo wasn't worried at all!" Even with his mocking words, Tsuna could hear the note of relief within Lampo's tone.

G huffed, looking slightly annoyed at Lampo before his anger deflated at Tsuna's worried gaze. "Sorry Giotto. I met an old friend and lost track of time."

Tsuna blinked in surprise. To think G would really lose track of time. And for the redhead to meet his friend after he ran away . . . the world was a small place after all.

"A friend?" Tsuna asked, feeling slightly excited. "Could I meet him?"

G winced. "Ah, sorry, you just missed him."

_Lie_.

Tsuna mentally frowned as his Intuition pinged. G didn't want him to meet his friend? Was there something wrong? Was that friend dangerous? Was G doing something bad?

But no, Tsuna trusted G with his life. If the redhead didn't want Tsuna to meet his friend, then Tsuna can abide by that.

"That's too bad," Tsuna said with a sigh. "Let's go then."

G nodded in agreement, and they quickly packed up their bags before setting off. It was only until they were a hour's walk away from the small village did Tsuna realize something.

"Wait, G, why were you in the church?"

* * *

**{chapter v end}**


	6. interlude i

**{interlude i}**

* * *

**I**

* * *

The first time G saw him, it had only been a few days since he ran away from home.

― _No, no, that place wasn't home. Not home, at least not_ his _home any more_ ―

He was a tiny, little thing, much smaller than G's stature of eight years. Soft tufts of bright yellow framed a cute and chubby heart-shaped face. In fact, the kid looked like a small ball of fluff. Harmless, cute fluff.

The child trailed timidly after a woman with wavy and long golden hair, making not a single peep even when the lady (and she _was_ a lady; G could tell by the expensive-looking fabric of her clothes and the way she held herself ―proud and confidant) stopped at different stalls.

The redhead blinked as he shifted quietly in the shadows, his intelligent mind already piecing together several theories. Both newcomers had the same gold hair colour. Were they related?

_But then again_ , G thought as he winced when the toddler tripped over his feet in his haste to help the lady grab her bags, _the child behaves more like a servant. He can't be her kid, so it's probably just a coincidence. Perhaps a maid's child?_

After what seemed like a few minutes, the woman finally finished her purchases. The blond kid paused hesitantly as the lady started off again, before looking over his shoulder.

And then, life as G knew it _changed_.

_Sunset. A beautiful, saffron sunset._

G inaudibly gasped as he was suddenly frozen to his spot by a pair of burning orange eyes. A wave of _acceptancelovehappinessunderstanding_ flowed into him and G rocked back on his heels, completely stunned. This . . . this was surreal.

He felt warm and happy and accepted. It had been ages since G felt anything like this, with his cold Mafioso parents and his tentative title as heir. Even his dear older sister, bless her sweet soul, had never managed to make him feel so safe before.

"Giotto," and then the lady spoke up, breaking the mesmerizing illusion. The blonde jolted at the soft voice and immediately started turning away to follow his mistress, but not before giving G one absolutely breathtaking smile.

_Giotto_. His name was Giotto.

G committed the name to his memory. Perhaps G could free the younger boy from his mistress? Though that would be quite hard considering G had given up his right as heir and was now nothing more than a street rat . . .

But.

The redhead tentatively touched his chest as the feeling of warmth lingered pleasantly. Breathing out softly, a small and rare smile graced G's face as his lips tilted upwards. In any case, the redhead couldn't wait to see the blonde again the next time he visited the village.

.

.

.

(He doesn't.

Though G saw the lady multiple times after, he never saw the tiny child with her again for many months to come.)

* * *

**II**

* * *

It was him.

Bright golden hair, glowing amber eyes.

G almost froze in shock when his red eyes locked onto familiar orange orbs. Immediately, the sense of complete acceptance and sweet warmth that had been missing for the entire year flowed into him.

Giotto. Little Giotto was back in the town, looking fluffy and small and absolutely harmless as he expertly stole from various stalls.

. . .

G blinked in befuddlement. Had the small boy ran away from his mistress? Was that why he was stealing? To provide for himself?

Well, that _would_ make G's half-baked plans of kidnapping the child work rather easily . . . But no. The child didn't have the look of one who was living off the streets. G would know a fellow street rat, no matter how new said street rat may be.

_After all, they all had that hint of maniac desperation in their eyes, and the same glint of crushing loneliness . . ._

Trailing behind the tiny boy and moving completely hidden in the shadows, G tried his best to organize his racing thoughts. And such chaotic thoughts they were. It was almost scary, how this blonde G didn't even personally know had so much control over him.

G wanted to rush over there, pluck Giotto up and squirrel him into a safe place whilst cuddling him. G wanted to pet the fluffy looking hair and hug the stuffing out of the child.

. . . G wanted to protect Giotto and be the target of his smile again.

It _didn't make any sense_.

The redhead gritted his teeth as he tore his eyes away from the blonde. Why? Why did G have thoughts like that? A year living on the streets, hiding from the Mafia and doing anything to survive, had changed him. If he was thinking normally, without the haze of _safesafesafewarmwarmit'salrightI'mhere_ , G would never want to do something like that. Sacrificing himself for a younger boy he didn't even know? Protecting him and his _smile_? What a joke; for all his rather impressive stealing skills, the kid was nothing. G would never pick up useless baggage like that.

_It'salrightI'mhereyou'resafe . . ._

But still . . . the redhead lifted his head just in time to see the small back of the child as he left the village.

For some reason, G didn't want Giotto to leave him.

. . . Not like last time. Not _again_.

* * *

**III**

* * *

"A- _Argh_ . . ."

The entire world blurred and twisted as his shivering limbs weighed him down like heavy lead. Cold flecks of falling snow dropped uncaring onto his exposed skin, their biting cold seeping into his bones as his warmth was drained steadily away.

His body spasmed. Everything hurt, an ever constant pain that accompanied every thump of his still beating heart.

". . . N-Ngh."

G felt his breaths come out as small gasps as the face in front of his own leered. A rough hand, the one responsible for throwing him around like a rag-doll, reached down to grab his hair and jerk his head up roughly.

"Ugh!"

"My, my," that taunting voice tutted. G growled weakly as the person snickered in amusement. "Even a quick death isn't good enough for someone like you."

" _Damn_ you," G snarled as he willed his body to move. To get up, to fight _back_.

. . . It didn't. Or more like, he _couldn't_.

"Such a dirty mouth," G's attacker sighed. "Ah, I don't want my clean hands to be spoiled by your filthy blood. So I guess this is enough, huh?"

Unceremoniously, the person dropped G's head back onto the ground. The redhead bit back a whimper as the harsh movement sent waves of spiking agony through his head. He could almost see the stars. Squinting up, G glared venomously through his pain.

"Oh, don't worry. I only administered a paralysing agent to you. But . . ."

G registered the sound of fading footsteps through his hazy mind. "It's suppose to be pretty cold today, right? What luck, it seems like I really don't need to finish you off. The closest town is at least an hour away, not that anyone would save a street rat like you."

Chilling laughter floated through the air as everything around G dimmed. "Have fun freezing to death . . . You should have remembered that nobody escapes from _us_."

And then, despite G's best and panicked efforts to stay awake, everything turned black.

* * *

**IV**

* * *

It was surreal. G blinked dazedly as Giotto hummed softly and walked in with a tray of food.

He had thought that he would have been a goner. Someone who would have died in his sleep, never to open his eyes again as his body slowly froze. And even if he did wake up again, G would have been too weak and sick to make it back to Town before he succumbed to the throes of Death.

G would have died. Painfully and slowly. He knew, as his eyes finally shut against his will, that he would not get a chance to open them again. He would have died.

But . . .

But the redhead didn't die. He didn't, because he was saved by _Giotto_.

. . .

Honestly, G didn't know what was more surprising. His apparent still continuing existence or the fact that Giotto was currently trying to feed him chicken soup.

"You're hungry, right?" The blonde boy asked softly as he spooned up some broth and blew on it softly. G flushed at the motherly gesture and automatically bristled indignantly.

"I can eat myself! And I don't want your food in the first place!" The redhead snapped warily, inching away from Giotto even as all his instincts rebelled against treating the younger so harshly.

_Nodon'tyellatyoursky_ . . .

The blonde blinked slowly before his eyes, a rare shade of light orange, softened. G could see a glint of understanding in those bright orbs, and carefully, Tsuna raised the spoonful of soup to his own mouth before swallowing.

"See," Giotto said as he placed the bowl of soup onto the cupboard next to him. "I'm not dead yet. So don't worry, G! I didn't poison it or anything."

G jerked, protests on the tip of his tongue before they stopped dead at the sight of Giotto's kind eyes. Technically, G knew that this squirt wouldn't hurt him. He didn't know where the child's mistress was, but the words Giotto had said before gave G the feeling that the blonde would never hurt him.

_Believeyourskyalways_. . .

But.

That day. He had been caught and played with, _shamed_ , all because of the piece of bread he had stolen. Back then, G hadn't eaten any food for at least two days, and he immediately jumped at the chance of an unguarded loaf of bread. He hadn't even thought to check for poison, hadn't even wondered why the bread had been there for anyone's taking. G had only felt so _hungry_ . . .

The redhead gritted his jaw in frustration as he watched Giotto for any discomfort. When a few minutes passed with nothing drastic happening, G cautiously picked up the bowl and took a sip.

. . .

It . . . tasted nice. Better than anything G managed to find in the past year or so. The redhead tried his best to not show his glee and hunger as he scarfed down the meal that had been painstakingly prepared for him. And at the end of it all, before G could say a single word, Giotto smiled.

"Thank you," the blonde whispered quietly. G turned away and bit his own tongue before he could ask him 'for what'.

* * *

**V**

* * *

Giotto was an interesting person.

His many quirks were quite weird for such a young child. Coupled with his bizarre skills of making G want to do his every bidding, it hadn't taken long at all for G to realize that Giotto was quite abnormal.

First of all was the fact that physically, Giotto was a child. A cute, fluffy child, one who radiated more happy innocence than perhaps all of the Town's children combined. And that was the first hint that had clued G in.

In all the time G had spent with Giotto, not once did the older boy see someone checking up on him. The blonde lived in the homey house with the redhead, but had probably been completely alone before he had taken him in as his new house mate.

So, how can a child with a life like that still be so innocent and happy?

And then it was the fact that yes, Giotto was a tiny kid. But mentally? G wasn't sure if Giotto had been forced to grow up and mature because of his circumstances, or if he had just been born with an old soul. The redhead himself took a while to realize that for Giotto to speak to him without ever being confused, to G who was someone years older and was said to be a genius, it meant that Giotto was mentally much older than what he physically looked like.

There were other things too, of course. How Giotto always spoke so eloquently, never once stumbling over his words like the child he was supposed to be. How he knew the recipes for so many dishes, the old cookbook never once used. How he could show G what types of plants would make good poisons, and give G ―a former _Mafia_ heir― a challenge in a spar.

Giotto was interesting.

Sometimes, G would see Giotto with an old man's eyes, hope withered and full of longing. Sometimes, Giotto would say something meaningful and deep, something a five year old child would never even hope to comprehend. Sometimes . . . sometimes . . .

In the end, however, Giotto was Giotto.

G's friend.

And for all his eccentrics, G wouldn't trade his friend for anything in the world.

* * *

**VI**

* * *

He was getting better.

G watched his friend attentively as he helped him sit up. With gentle hands, he slowly unravelled the blood stained bandages that were covering the blonde's shoulder before staring at it grimly.

Giotto was getting better. But . . .

A puncture of angry red stood out horribly on Giotto's pale skin. G had never seen a more horrible injury, at least not one where the victim was still alive. And to think that it would have been G with this wound, G who was not loved by God like Giotto and would probably have died . . .

_Yourfaultyourfaulthowcouldyouhavedonethis_ . . .

"G?"

The redhead shook his head to rid himself of his wandering thoughts. Pasting a soft smile, reserved just for Giotto, on his face, G grabbed some ointment and new bandages before tending to the injury.

"Yes, Giotto?" The redhead asked softly, eyes focused on the wound. The tense body underneath his hands relaxed.

"Nothing," Giotto said before smiling. "Thank you for taking care of me."

. . .

If Giotto noticed that G's normally steady hands started trembling, he didn't say anything.

* * *

**VII**

* * *

G frowned.

He was being unfair. G knew that, and though he also knew that kind and sweet Giotto would never blame him . . .

But G couldn't just leave it like that.

When Giotto had been half dead and unconscious, G spent every single second worrying over the comatose child. He couldn't even fall asleep, not when his friend lay wheezing, _dying_ , because of him. Before long, with nothing to occupy his time and stop his dark thoughts from festering, the redhead began to clean up Giotto's mother's room . . . the one that looked like a tornado had blown through because of him.

And then G found the book. Jittery and looking for anything to distract him even for a little bit, G took it with him once he finished cleaning. Because, he had almost killed dear Giotto. If the blonde would ever forgive him, G doubt the boy would be mad at him for looking through an old ratty book.

So, G plopped down beside his unconscious friend once more before opening the old book. Reading quickly, G felt the colour drain from his face as he devoured the words on the old pages, despite his growing intentions to stop.

It was surreal. G hadn't been too far off with his first guess; that blond lady he once saw really was from a noble family. But Giotto . . .

Giotto was not a maid's child. Giotto was her _son_. The son of a noble lady and a poor man. The son who would have been his prestigious family's heir had he not been his father's child. Had his grandfather been so petty and angry.

A boy who would have been happy, one who would live a charmed life, had his parents _lived_.

G bit his lips as he caught Giotto's worried eyes. The redhead knew that Giotto was quite worried about his bizarre behaviour, but G couldn't help himself. Not only did he almost kill his blond friend, but in addition he read Giotto's dead mother's diary. Even if the blonde didn't know what he did, G's conscience would never let him live it down.

G closed his eyes and sighed. He never had thought that he would ever tell someone his story, his _childhood_ , even if they became close. But now . . .

Now, G was ready to tell Giotto what was on the blood-stained pages of his younger life. And the idea wasn't even as nerve-wracking as G had originally thought.

* * *

**VIII**

* * *

"Mmm . . ."

Fluffy hair tickled his neck as G's teddy bear shifted. G mentally groaned as he hugged and cuddled his tiny friend.

"Don't move so much, Gio," G murmured softly as Giotto stopped squirming. The small blond huffed quietly before snuggling closer.

It was rather cold that night, and G had been beyond worry that Giotto would catch a cold. Because of Giotto's poor health and G's own refusal to leave the younger unattended, they had run a bit short on firewood. Thus, G squirrelled his friend into his own bed for some cuddling.

Thank god both of them were still quite short. Or else they would have to drag a few blankets and sleep on the cold and hard floor . . .

"Good night G . . ." Large and doe orange eyes blinked close blearily as the five year old child yawned. Slowly but surely, the younger's breathing evened out as his face relaxed.

. . .

G shifted over a bit to look at Giotto. Giotto, who always made G feel so warm and loved. Giotto, who was still so young and tiny. Giotto, who had in such a short time already become G's entire world.

Giotto was like G's sky. Vast and beautiful. And as the blonde child unconsciously cuddled closer to him, G made a vow to _always_ protect his sky.

Giotto won't be hurt again. G would make sure of it.

* * *

**IX**

* * *

_Snip. Snip. Snip._

"G, it's ticklish!" Giotto giggled as G hovered behind him, holding a pair of scissors. Small puffs of gold fell onto the ground.

Sighing as he combed through the thick blond hair, G stared at his work critically before leaning back with a satisfied grin. He did a pretty decent job for someone's first try at cutting hair if he did say so himself.

After all, Giotto suddenly sprung this on him that morning. With a small frown and big, imploring eyes, the blonde had pleaded for G to cut his hair.

At first, G had been pretty reluctant to do it. After all, it would be his first time doing something like that and G was not known at all for his aesthetic taste. In addition, it was such a shame to cut Giotto's beautiful and fair hair . . .

But then Giotto had pleaded and whined and flashed those _damn puppy dog eyes_ at him, and, well, G caved. Surely cutting hair wouldn't be that hard, right? And even if G messes up, it would serve Giotto right for trying to manipulate him. After all, G _knew_ Giotto knew that he was weak to his beautiful orange eyes.

Bounding back into the house with a skip, Giotto dragged him up the stairs before bursting into the washroom. Hurrying to the mirror, Giotto admired his new hair cut before turning back to G with a wide smile.

"Thank you G! It looks great~"

. . .

G hid a smile under his hand as he reached up to pat the shorter but still puffy hair.

* * *

**X**

* * *

"M-Mmph . . ." A quiet moan of pain was soon followed by harsh pants. G gritted his teeth as he dipped the cloth into cold water before placing it back onto his friend's forehead.

Giotto was wrapped in numerous blankets, but he was still shivering sporadically. His face was flushed bright red, and each breath he took in shuddered as if it was his last. Banishing that horrid thought from his head, G brushed his hand gently through sweaty golden locks before wetting another cloth to wipe off the sweat on Giotto's limbs.

"Ergh!" Giotto arched away from the cold cloth even as G winced at the heat radiating off his friend's skin. The child was burning up. Giotto was burning up bad and G could do nothing but pray he would make it through the night.

Thrashing slightly in what seemed like pain, Giotto's eyes cracked open. G blinked worriedly at the blank gaze of those glazed orange eyes.

"H-Hayato?" The voice was a whisper, a quiet call, but nonetheless G heard it. Smoothing down Giotto's blankets gently, G hummed softly to show that he was there in hopes of calming the increasingly agitated child.

It didn't work. At all. In fact, it surprisingly seemed to have the opposite effect. Thus, G was totally not prepared when fat tear droplets gathered in Giotto's eyes.

"Ah, Hayato," Giotto cried softly as pearls of salty water dripped down his face. "Hayato, _gomenasai_."

"Giotto?! It's fine, you're alright, stop crying, please―" G wiped the tears away hastily as he stammered out worried phrases. But Giotto did not stop crying, even as his high fever steadily rose because of his accumulating stress.

"Gomenasai, gomenasai, gomenasai," Soft sobs. Feeling completely helpless, G reached down and pulled the boy into a tight hug before rocking them back and forth, hoping to calm the feverish child down. "Gomenasai, gomenasai, _gomenasai_."

G couldn't tell what the heck his distressed friend was saying. It did not sound like Italian, or any other language G had once studied as heir. However, each sob, each word that fell out of Giotto's mouth felt like a stab to his chest.

Giotto cried incoherently throughout the whole night. By the time orange eyes were open and lucid once more, G had developed a deep hatred for the word ' _gomenasai_ '.

* * *

**{interlude i end}**


	7. chapter vi

**{chapter vi}**

* * *

_In a different universe, Giotto would have met the travelling musician Asari Ugetsu on one of his many business trips._

_In a different universe, Ugetsu would be completely enchanted by the liquid fire burning in Giotto's orange eyes._

_In a different universe, Giotto would send a plea of help to Ugetsu with shaking, regretful hands, and Ugetsu would give up his own dreams and respond_ ―

.

.

.

― _This time, however, it would be Ugetsu who was forever indebted._

* * *

_**seventy weeks, two days** _

* * *

It was a beautiful, beautiful day.

"Fresh fish, caught only a few hours ago for cheap . . . !"

"Pots and pans here! Get your pots and pans!"

"Silk clothes for sale! Handmade silk of all colours . . . !"

". . . _Wow_ ," Tsuna breathed out slowly as he took a look around with wide eyes. Both his companions did the same as the trio stared at their new surroundings in undiluted awe.

Various merchants yelled in exotic languages as they waved excitedly at their strange goods. People wearing all sorts of different clothes and colours scurried through the bustling streets, careful to not bump into each other. Even the scenery was a far cry to what Tsuna was used to; there were sandy grounds with blue, sparkling water, that stretched as far as one could see.

It was like stepping into a magical and whole new world.

". . . Should we go look for an inn, Giotto?" G asked as he turned to the blonde, reluctantly taking his red eyes off of the mesmerizing image. Blinking to snap himself out of his own awe, Tsuna nodded briefly as he began to focus onto his Intuition. Unsurprisingly, there seemed to be many inns at the port, each one with colourful banners and seemingly homely establishments. But like always, that wasn't the extent of their needs; Tsuna and his little family ( _not complete yet, nowhere complete_ ) needed to find a place that wouldn't bring them any trouble.

_Somewhere homely . . . somewhere their ragtag team could feel safe in, if only just for a few days . . ._

"I've got it," Tsuna said triumphantly when he felt that special little nudge. Snapping back to his surroundings, he started to walk resolutely in the direction his Intuition told him to. Both his friends followed dutifully behind him as he led them through many twists and turns to finally end up at a small house.

". . ."

And by small, Tsuna meant really small. He couldn't even tell what the name of the inn was, for it looked so old that time itself had already weathered the words on the sign away. Thankfully, the building still stood quite sturdy despite how ancient it looked, but . . . Tsuna pursed his lips. Did his ever-trusty Intuition finally make a mistake? Would his friends even agree to stay in there . . . ? Feeling a bit unsure, he looked over to his companions in an attempt to gauge their reactions.

"Good job as always, Giotto."

Tsuna shouldn't have doubted their trust in him.

G gave him a tired smile as he got out his small pouch of money, already pushing through the old and creaking doors. Lampo was following behind him, only stopping to glance at Tsuna when the older blonde did nothing but stare at them with soft and warm eyes.

No, Tsuna shouldn't have doubted them.

* * *

_**seventy weeks, four days** _

* * *

_His chest burned._

_Tsuna gasped, tears making their way to his eyes as he felt himself drop to his knees. A cacophony of panicked words, spoken in an increasingly hysterical tone, vibrated around him. If he could have, Tsuna would have given his family his usual reassuring smile to ease their worries, but at the moment he could only bat their wandering hands away blindly as the pain seared throughout his body._

_It hurt. So much._

_"What was the first thing I taught you, hmm, Tsuna?"_

_If the normally strong voice had a shade of panic in it, none of the emotion showed in the steady hand that hauled him to_ ― _a bench? The ground? It was either or, really. Tsuna gritted his teeth as he focused on the voice that had always guided him faithfully._

_". . . To always do something with my Dying Will?" A wet cough cut off the young man's voice, even as a soft light rushed to soothe him. "U-Um, Reborn, is this really the time for this?"_

_". . . Don't sound so patronizing, Dame-Tsuna. Obviously I have taught you much more things than just that. Now think."_

_._

_._

_A quiet lull as he focused on just breathing. And then_ ―

_". . . To trust my Hyper Intuition?"_

_"Wrong. I taught you to **always** trust your Hyper Intuition. So, tell me now, my suicidal boss. Why didn't you trust it this time?"_

_"Ah, um_ ― _"_

_"No excuses. Look what your disobedience got you into, you idiot student. Next time I'll just let you feel miserable instead of healing you, hmph."_

_"Reborn-san!" Hayato's scandalized voice sounded to his right, before it immediately changed to a worried tone. "Tenth! Are you alright?"_

_"Yeah . . . sorry, you guys . . ." for making you worry. ". . . Thanks Reborn."_

_._

_._

_._

His Intuition came through for them once again and before long, all three boys were settled down in their temporary and new home. Despite the relatively small size, the inn inside was actually much larger than it seemed. In addition, the atmosphere of the place was also very relaxing. Tsuna swore that the cheery family who ran the establishment were truly angels, and even picky Lampo couldn't complain about the fantastic food. As a bonus to all of that, the beds in the place were quite comfortable as well!

So yes, clearly Tsuna and his friends had hit jackpot with their little discovery. But by the second day, however, their new home lost that 'new' quality that had kept them preoccupied during their first day there. Now, the trio was raring and ready to go out and explore.

Seeing a chance, Tsuna immediately proposed to go chocolate hunting (yes, G, he was _still_ salty over the chocolate he didn't get to eat in the last city, and yes, G, its completely your fault). Unsurprisingly, Lampo enthusiastically supported his ideas, and seeing as it was two against one, at the end G reluctantly gave in.

"Hmph, chocolate is just chocolate, so why do you always want to try the chocolate every time we visit a new place?" G grumbled a quiet complaint even as he dutifully followed both of his companions. Tsuna shared a _look_ with Lampo before both of them simultaneously rolled their eyes.

"Of course _you_ wouldn't understand." Lampo looked back, giving the oldest of their group a patronizing look that was in reality quite cute. Then again, only chibi Reborn could pull of that look with one hundred percent success.

"Yeah, since he's not a Chocolate Follower," Tsuna finished with a mock nod. Seconds later, both of them burst out into a fit of laughter as G shook his head with an exasperated smile.

.

.

Smile.

.

.

 _Smile_.

.

.

.

" _. . . Smile . . . ? But . . . it hurts so much . . . Too much to smile . . ._ "

.

"Giotto?"

.

_"After all . . . please . . . I don't . . . I dOn'T wAnT tO bE aLoNe AnYmOrE . . ."_

"Gio―?"

 _"_ ― _so please_ _saVE ME SAVE ME SAVEMESAVEMESAVEME_ ― _"_

And violà, the once happy atmosphere all but disappeared as the world decided to take a sick leave. Every colour melted out of his surroundings to form an ugly screen of gray. Birds' trills, the laughter of the children who had been in front of them . . . All of the sounds quieted down before completely disappearing. In addition, as if that wasn't horrifying enough, the temperature dropped until it felt as though he had been suddenly plunged into cold water. Terrified, Tsuna bit down a whimper as he was hit with a sudden sense of vertigo, the ground beneath his feet seemingly vanished.

 _"Please help me help me help me_ ― _"_

 _"They're all dead_ ― _"_

 _"TheY'RE ALL DEAD_ ― _"_

Tsuna tripped.

_"D-Decimo sir, please consider. You should pick new Guardians. After all, they have . . . they have already been confirmed dead."_

_Dead._

_That's right. He was alone now. His family . . . His poor family . . . they were all_ dead―

"Giotto! Giotto! _Giotto_!"

_Who . . . ?_

Panicked voices broke through his clouded mind, and Tsuna blearily looked up from his sprawled position to see his companions white-faced with fear.

. . . Companions.

Ah . . . that was right. Tsuna was Giotto now, and he . . . He had a family. Tsuna . . . Tsuna wasn't alone anymore.

". . . Sorry, I'm fine," the blonde mumbled quietly as he gave the other two a small smile. If it was shaky, both his friends didn't comment on it. They just looked relieved to see the blonde finally responding.

Realizing that he was more aware again, G let go of his friend's arm with a soft sigh. His red eyes, standing out as a stark contrast with his pale face, were still crinkled with worry.

"Next time," the oldest started as he absentmindedly patted Lampo in an attempt to calm the shaken child, who was already on the verge of tears. "I'm going out alone to buy you some chocolate. This had happened last time too."

"Ah-Ah, okay," Tsuna replied in a small daze. He blinked a few times in rapid succession at G's beginning lecture on health, far too drained to make a protest. Rubbing his tired eyes in an attempt to clear his muddled head, Tsuna sighed softly. He felt so drained, and just . . . so, _so_ tired.

But . . . what the heck _happened_?

When Tsuna finally felt as though he had somewhat succeeded in waking up a bit, the blonde closed his eyes again to concentrate on the ill feeling that had shaken him so. Though he was no longer in that terrifying place, where he was slowly stripped of his senses, his fear was still present. It was a fear that twisted his gut and made his limbs almost numb, and it still lurked around at the corner of his mind.

. . . Which reminded Tsuna, was that why he had so suddenly tripped? He hadn't done anything so clumsy like that in a while now. After all, Reborn had once took great lengths to beat it out of him, and it had somewhat worked. Now, his once-clumsiness rarely resurfaced in his new life as Giotto.

Curious, Tsuna reopened his eyes to look at his (thankfully normal) surroundings. It couldn't have been a mere coincidence that he had fallen when he had been so scared, and Tsuna knew for a fact that he was not one whose knees would give out on him in extreme fear. If he was, Tsuna would obviously not have lived past his Reborn Training Days.

Like a horror movie, everything seemed to slow down. The uncomfortable feeling that had just plagued the boy intensified as Tsuna casually turned around to look behind him.

_"I'm . . . I'm all alone . . . please . . ."_

Tsuna froze, mind blank as his Intuition roared. When they realized that the blonde was no longer listening to their worried questions, Tsuna's two friends followed his gaze to a pair of still feet.

_"Help."_

.

.

.

Lampo screamed.

* * *

_**seventy weeks, five days** _

* * *

Asari Ugetsu was a small, thin and bony boy. Under his many layers of clothing, his body, seemingly made out of sticks and bones, looked like that of a very malnourished child. In addition, the high fever he suffered from didn't contribute anything positive to his picture of health (. . . or lack-thereof).

Thus, though Tsuna could still remember the sheer fighting prowess of Primo's Rain Guardian, the poor boy right now looked nowhere near the picture he had once made. In fact, Asari now looked so, _so_ fragile.

― _they were too late . . . they were too late . . ._ _he had been locked up for weeks without food, he had been tortured, spat on, and his athletic body was reduced to this broken substitute and nonONONO TAKESHI PLEASE DON'T JUST LIE THERE LIKE THAT WHY AREN'T YOU MOVING_ _TAK_ ESHI―

It had been a stroke of pure luck for them to somehow stumble upon Primo's Rain, and quite literally too. Tsuna was still reeling from the fact that his Intuition didn't give him any early warnings about their unconventional meeting. Could his Intuition be getting weaker? If it was, should Tsuna still trust it? After all, it wasn't just his life in danger here, it was G's and Lampo's too . . .

_"Wrong. I taught you to **always** trust your Hyper Intuition. So, tell me now, my suicidal boss. Why didn't you trust it this time?"_

. . . Or maybe his Intuition _did_ warn him after all? Maybe meeting Asari, this sick, almost-dying Asari, was the reason why his Intuition had guided them to the Port City in the first place? Because really, if they didn't come to this city and subsequently met and treated the sick child, would the Rain have even survived . . . ?

"Hey," a low voice murmured near his left ear. Snapping out of his turbulent thoughts, Tsuna turned around to meet serious red-wine eyes as G absentmindedly patted his head.

. . . Uhuh, yeah, this G was nothing like Hayato. Tsuna's Storm would have never even considered patting Tsuna on the head like a dog. If anything, it should have been the other way around!

On the bright side, his two companions were probably used to Tsuna's adopting ways (after all, he had taken _them_ in as well!), and so neither of them complained when the blonde adamantly refused to leave the sick boy alone. Minding your own business? Pfft, the person who had coined that saying obviously didn't have any time-traveling experience like Tsuna. They didn't know what they were talking about.

But back to the point; both boys were both completely okay with taking Asari home with them. In fact, it had been G who had carried Asari back . . . mostly because the redhead had adamantly refused to let Tsuna in fear that the blonde would have a relapse or something. Even without a burden like G's, Lampo had hovered worriedly beside him on their entire way home!

. . .

Tsuna wasn't that worrisome, was he? He obviously managed to survive as a Mafia boss for many many years, so it wasn't like he was dumb or something. Perhaps all of Primo's Guardians were just naturally born mother-hens?

"Don't look like that. He'll be fine," G ordered softly, even as he settled down beside Tsuna to work. The redhead efficiently changed the cold and wet cloth on Asari's head before fussing over the unconscious boy's blankets. He obviously got the routine down-pat, probably because of Tsuna's own many sick days.

Which reminded him . . . he had been too out of it when he was sick, but. Tsuna blinked, feeling a bit bemused. Was this what G's fussing looked like from a bystander's perspective? If that was the case, then perhaps there was some merit to the mother-hen theory after all.

"Look like what?" Tsuna belatedly asked, eyes still on his sick potential future (past?) friend.

". . ."

G turned around to face him, and this time Tsuna could make out just how upset the older boy really was. Feeling a bit bewildered and very much startled, Tsuna began to reach over in a comforting manner when G sighed deeply.

"Look like you're about to cry."

* * *

_**seventy weeks, six days** _

* * *

_"Tsuna!" A cheerful voice shouted out his name a second before his office door slammed wide open. The said mentioned Mafia boss rolled his eyes as his Rain Guardian bounced in . . . even though he couldn't quite hide the small smile that danced upon his lips._

He wouldn't be smiling later.

_"Careful with all of the doors in this wing," he warned with a mock-serious stare, lips twitching up again. "They're new. I just replaced them after the Varia came in with their last reports."_

The Varia were long gone.

_Takeshi winced minutely before chuckling softly. Frowning at the giant desk that separated him from his dear boss, the man walked over to swing his arm around Tsuna's shoulders._

_It was just what the young Mafia don needed. Tsuna sighed as he melted into his friend's body, the waves of gentle Rain Flames doing wonders for his fatigue._

In the end, hadn't it been all his fault?

_"So, what did you call me here for?" Takeshi asked softly after a few minutes of comfortable silence. Tsuna hummed and reluctantly detached himself from his Guardian before reaching over to pull out the file he had set aside earlier._

No, no, don't do it, please . . . Don't give it to him.

_"A new mission," The brunet explained regretfully as he flipped the file open. "It's a simple reconnaissance one, since you had just gotten out of the hospital."_

It hadn't been simple, because . . . it was a **trap**.

_Takeshi frowned even as he leaned over to look at the enclosed information. "It was only a scratch, Tsuna. I'm completely fine."_

_"No arguing, I'm not budging on this," Tsuna retorted playfully as he tried his best to keep the guilt out of his voice. But judging by how Takeshi looked up to carefully scrutinize him, he probably didn't do too good of a job._

No, please . . .

_". . . Fine," Takeshi relented with a tired smile. He took the folder and gave Tsuna an one-armed hug. "Take care of yourself, okay?"_

No . . .

_"Of course," Tsuna said with a nod and a gentle smile. "Be careful too, Takeshi."_

No!

_His Rain smiled at him and walked out with a perky bounce._

_It was the last time Tsuna had ever saw him alive._

_._

_._

_._

"NO!" Tsuna muffled his scream with his pillow as he sobbed quietly. Jerking away from his peaceful and slumbering friend, the blonde tumbled off his bed silently to land on the floor in a heap of shaking limbs. Faint tremors ran through his sweaty body as the horrible memories assaulted him once more.

Of course. _Of course._

It had been all his fault. After all, _his_ orders were the ones that had led his family to their ultimate demises. It was because of him that his friends were all gone . . . It was _his_ hands that were forever stained in blood.

They had all died one by one. Takeshi . . . they had tried to save Takeshi, Tsuna had tried oh so hard, but they were still _too late_.

Always, always, too late . . .

So . . . why was _he_ still there, in his ancestor's body? Why couldn't Tsuna go to Hell, where he _belonged_ , and atone for his family's lives? For all his grave actions? Why, after everything, was Tsuna _still alive_ ―?

.

.

.

_"Tsuna, are you okay?"_

"Ah, d **-** daijōbu de gozaru?"

Tsuna jerked, surprised, as his teary face whipped up. Right into a pair of inquisitive and gentle eyes.

* * *

_**seventy weeks, seven days** _

* * *

"Easy there," Tsuna murmured softly in his mother tongue as he rubbed soothing circles onto Asari's shaking back. The poor boy was throwing up the remains of what seemed to be his meager breakfast as his thin limbs shook from the exertion. "Don't worry, you'll be just fine."

At the moment, only the two of them were in their shared inn room. Lampo had gone off with a reluctant G to take a quick look around the port city. Normally, G (and Lampo) would have been completely against the idea of leaving Tsuna alone, but somehow Tsuna had managed to convince them to go out and take a quick breather. After all, Lampo had been so bored lately that he had almost taken to bouncing off the walls, and poor G had barely stopped for a break in the last couple of days.

It was almost laughable, really. For better or worst, Asari had completely taken over their lives.

Anyway, it was just his luck that Asari had ended up waking up when his companions were both out. The feverish boy had fallen asleep after scaring Tsuna half to death the night before, and Tsuna had almost started believing that he had dreamt the whole exchange up.

"Do you feel any better now?" The blonde asked worriedly when Asari finally stopped vomiting. He took the bowl Asari had been sick in away to their tiny bathroom before returning to the pale boy's side. Asari nodded shakily.

"That's good," Tsuna sighed in relief as a faintly apologetic look stole across his face. "It was probably my fault for giving you something so oily in the first place. I'll ask for some plain porridge later."

A pause quieted the room after Tsuna's soft words, before Asari looked up with sharp eyes. Tsuna was immediately reminded of another pair of eyes on a truly similar face, before he stuffed that memory into the deepest corner of his mind and adopted a mildly confused look.

"Is something wrong?"

For a few strained minutes, that was all that happened. Asari scrutinized him silently as Tsuna kept his mask of harmlessness up. The feverish glow in his companion's eyes pulled at his heartstrings, but Tsuna knew that it was not the time to act on his feelings. Even without his Intuition, he could tell that it would only alienate the sick boy and cause him to be more wary.

And then, like a taut string finally cut, all the tension bled out of the room. "No. I feel better, de gozaru."

"That's a relief," And it was. Tsuna mentally sighed and patted himself on the back. It felt as though he had just passed some sort of test Asari had administered to him. "Anyway, I didn't explain much before, but me and two of my friends ―who are currently out― found you unconscious and we decided to bring you here."

Tsuna's eyes darkened as he looked up, the memories of the still Asari and his own Rain colliding in his mind. They really looked so similar, and for a few minutes after Tsuna had saw Asari, he almost thought he had failed his Guardian once again. Thankfully, it was nothing of that sort. Tsuna didn't think he could live if he had to watch his friends die twice.

― _after all, wasn't he barely living right now?_ ―

"Anyway," Tsuna said softly before he caught the sick boy's eyes and made sure to hold his gaze. Something sharp throbbed in his chest at the familiar face, but Tsuna ignored it with practiced ease as he sighed. "I know we're strangers and everything, but, well. I don't regret it. So, _gomenasai_ ―"

Something clattered to the floor. Whipping around in surprise ― _how did someone sneak up on him!?_ ― Tsuna jerked to a stop when he saw both his friends standing there. Lampo was looking confusedly at G, who had dropped his flask of water and who was currently squeezing the life out of what seemed to be a loaf of bread. Red eyes stared at both Tsuna and Asari with startling intensity, before he seemed to forcibly relax.

"Well," G started, voice steely. "Introduce us to our new housemate, Giotto."

* * *

**_seventy-one weeks, three days_ **

* * *

Now that Asari woke up, it became quite obvious that G did not seem to like the Japanese boy at all. It was truly a mystery, yet no matter how much Tsuna begged his Intuition, he still hadn't the faintest clue as to why. Right now, they couldn't even _understand_ each other, but G was still undeniably wary! It was almost like a parody play that featured the beginning interactions of Hayato and Takeshi . . . but . . . well . . . a lot less friendly.

Fortunately, Lampo still had absolutely no qualms with their newest housemate.

"How do you even know J-Japa-Japanese?" Lampo asked in curiosity as the three of them gathered around their lunch. Tsuna had specifically ordered some light chicken soup for Asari, since he was still a bit feverish.

Translating Lampo's question for Asari, Tsuna cocked his head in thought. Hhh, tough question. How could he explain that . . . ? Tsuna couldn't really say he was actually born in Japan a few hundred years in the future, could he?

". . . I think my mother taught me," the blonde finally replied in Italian before remembering to repeat his words in Japanese. Despite Tsuna being the one with the built-in lie detector, he still tried to tell half-truths instead of full-out lies. It was safer that way, after all.

Humming thoughtfully even as G jerked a bit in surprise, Tsuna mused out loud. "I'm not too sure though . . . I don't remember much from before I found G."

"Ehh . . ." Lampo drawled out, before thankfully dropping the matter.

Asari nodded with a small smile even as he lifted his spoon to his mouth. That was another difference between Primo's Rain and Tsuna's Takeshi. Asari was much calmer, and this Rain didn't seem to harbor any intents on antagonizing G like Takeshi had once done. Or maybe it was because he disliked to talk when nobody but Tsuna could understood him . . . ?

"Ne," Asari began softly. Both G and Lampo quieted down as Tsuna smiled encouragingly, inwardly mooning over the fact that the contemplative boy was finally starting a conversation on his own. Asari paused as he stared at his food, before the sick Rain looked up with a giant and blinding smile.

Tsuna's breath caught in his throat.

 _He looked just like Takeshi, when_ Tsuna's _Rain smiled._

"Arigatou gozaimasu," Asari said formally, bowing his head in a respectful manner. Blinking out of his shock, Tsuna hurried to assure the Rain that they were totally happy to have him with them, never-mind G's actions or words.

_But . . ._

_Tsuna couldn't tell if that had been one of Takeshi's fake smiles._

* * *

**_seventy-one weeks, six days_ **

* * *

"We definitely have to stock up on sweets," Lampo said self-righteously as he bounced beside an amused Tsuna. "Especially grape-flavored ones."

"And chocolate ones!" Tsuna added in with a smile even as G grumbled.

"Why can't you two think of more practical things to buy?" The redhead complained without any heat. Asari followed calmly behind him, looking much better than he had even a few days ago.

"Practical things?" Tsuna asked with a smile. "Then, are you out of bullets? Or maybe we should get some new clothes?"

Turning around to face the oldest members of their little group, Tsuna inclined his head to Asari before addressing him warmly. The blonde had been doing his job of a walking translator diligently, to make sure nobody felt left out. "Asari-san? Do you need something new?"

Asari jerked in slight surprise before shaking his head with a faint smile. Tsuna . . . tried not to sigh in defeat.

Ever since Asari had fully recovered, Tsuna had begun to notice the despondency that surrounded the Rain like a second coat. Honestly, Tsuna really had no idea what had happened to the boy, or where his family even was. After all, though his Mafia history textbooks had once said that Asari was the second son of a noble clan in the Heian era, it was obvious that almost none of his previous knowledge really applied here.

Really, if Tsuna ever got back to his own world, he was so going to fire whoever wrote those books.

"Should we split up then?" Tsuna asked as he paused at one of the trinket stalls. "I can go with Asari-san and Lampo, you can go with G?"

". . . No," G answered in a decisive tone. "It's a big place, so we should stick together. Your Intuition will help us navigate."

Tsuna blinked, hiding his surprise. It was unlike G to shoot down the idea of splitting up and saving time. After all, it was G who was usually the one who advocated for things like that.

Humming softly in quiet agreement, Tsuna fell back to walk beside the Storm. Just what was G thinking?

* * *

**_seventy-two weeks, two days_ **

* * *

"Giotto," G said softly. Tsuna jumped in surprise.

"G!" He said in a startled tone. His friend quickly took the tray of food he had been bringing back to the room . . . before steering him in the opposite direction?

"G?" Tsuna asked in confusion, not really afraid because his Intuition had not made a single peep. The redhead stayed quiet, only humming softly in response before bringing him to a deserted room.

". . . I don't trust him," G finally deigned to reply after they had stepped inside and the door closed behind him. "Do you?"

What . . . ? He was not expecting that. Tsuna blinked, before the pieces finally clicked together in his head. Of course! G was talking about Asari, after all, there had been no other additions to their group. Plus, add in how G had been acting towards Asari in the past few days . . . his declaration was really not something surprising.

But G's question . . . If it had been anyone else, someone not from Primo's little circle, Tsuna would have been quite wary too. So, Tsuna could definitely understand where G was coming from, even if he was a bit bewildered.

But . . . it was Asari.

_Takeshi._

"Yes," Tsuna stated quietly but resolutely. "I trust him with my life."

Tsuna didn't know if something had happened between G and Asari when he wasn't there, for G to become so hostile. After all, G had been worried over the sick boy as well when the Rain had been unconscious. But as far as Tsuna was concerned, Asari had been nothing but kind. And a bit quiet. Then again, that might just be his personality. After all, Tsuna didn't really know him, and it wasn't right to just compare the Rain to Takeshi.

. . . Though Tsuna was already guilty of it so many times.

G stilled, before turning around to face him. The redhead scrutinized him quietly, and Tsuna made sure to broadcast his feelings with his firm eyes and relaxed stance. Finally, G's shoulders dropped in what seemed to be defeat before the older boy sighed.

"Giotto, what does ' _gomenasai_ ' mean?"

. . .

"Huh?" Tsuna was so lost. Baffled, the blonde cocked his head to the side. "Ah, it means 'I'm sorry' in Japanese, G."

Pausing, Tsuna frowned. "You've never shown interest in Japanese before, so . . . why do you ask . . . ?"

* * *

**{chapter vi end}**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> //buried in school//


	8. chapter vii

**{chapter vii}**

* * *

**Trigger Warning: Suicide Attempt**

* * *

_**seventy-two weeks, four days** _

* * *

_The jaws of pure guilt threatened to swallow Tsuna whole as he grimly watched his Rain clean his blades._

_". . ."_

_". . ."_

_Takeshi's bloodied hands were shaking. His hands and arms, sturdy and strong as he clashed swords with any foe, were shaking as every single drop of blood was wiped off with a copper-scented cloth._

_'Had it been worth it?' Tsuna desperately wanted to ask him if not for his own cowardice. Had it been worth it, to exchange his baseball bat for a sword? Had it been worth it, for Takeshi to skewer hearts instead of hitting home runs?_

_Had it been worth it for him to stay by Tsuna's side?_

_"Ha ha, Tsuna, stop thinking and leave that to Hayato. You make it look painful," a brittle voice piped up. Immediately snapping out of his daze, Tsuna looked up to see Takeshi's strained smile and darkened hazel eyes. The sight of his weary friend made his heart clench._ _Oh, if only Tsuna could turn back time, to make sure Takeshi could get the bright future he deserved . . ._

_Alas, not even Bovino's brightest minds could give him the ability to do that._

_"Takeshi . . ." Giving the taller a weak smile himself, Tsuna closed his eyes and did the only thing he was now capable of: apologize. "I'm_ ― _"_

_"Tsuna!"_

_Except . . . he never got that far._

_"Tsuna, don't you dare say you're sorry."_

_Lean arms crushed the brunet to a shaking chest as Tsuna let out a yelp of surprise. Dark, yes, but resolute hazel eyes stared down into widened chocolate ones before the owner of the first buried his face into the Sky's fluffy hair._

_The taller sighed._

_"Without you, I wouldn't even be alive, Tsuna."_

_"That's_ ― _! Takeshi!_ _"_

_A soft chuckle, full of fondness, filled the air as Tsuna felt tears prick his eyes. Takeshi pulled back, smiling brightly once more as he ruffled his friend's hair._

_"Tsuna, I'm not sorry, even if I have to spill blood."_

_A pause, and then the man's tone darkened in a promise . . ._

_"If it keeps you safe, I would never be sorry."_

_._

_._

_._

Tsuna woke up slowly. Still in-between the realms of consciousness and sleep, it took him a while to register what had woken him up in the first place, and even then Tsuna felt more than a bit confused. After all, they were in an inn. One that certainly did not provide any music for entertainment, and definitely none for a wake-up call.

So, with that in mind, just where oh where was the soft and absolutely beautiful melody coming from?

And it was beautiful, breathtakingly so. The lovely music sounded surprisingly happy despite the minor intonations woven so intricately into the piece, but even the cheery tune could not overshadow the shades of melancholy. Blinking blearily in surprise, the blond turned his head toward the source of the sound and―

― _Oh_.

Black eyelashes fluttered softly as pursed lips breathed music into life. Ugetsu sat on the other bed, his long and delicate fingers flitting across his flute as the soft and beautiful melodies blanketed the room. A second, a minute, or an hour passed before the older boy finally stopped his playing and breathed a sigh of contentment. Ugetsu opened his eyes slowly to find . . .

Tsuna staring. Tsuna staring at him _blatantly_.

Both of them froze as they made eye contact, before Tsuna shook himself out of his surprise and started clapping enthusiastically.

"Asari-san, that was _so amazing_!" Tsuna breathed as he clapped his hands harder in his awe. "It was so beautiful!"

"A-Ah, erm . . . thank you, de gozaru," Ugetsu tried for a smile even as he sneakily hid his flute. Tsuna blinked at the surprising shyness, before he started gushing some more.

"No, thank you for playing that!" Tsuna beamed at the embarrassed boy. "I loved it so much! You are so amazing, Asari-san!"

"!"

Immediately, Ugetsu's face turned a cherry red, a shade startlingly similar to G's hair. Tsuna felt almost impressed; who knew Primo's Rain could blush like _that_?

* * *

Apparently, G and Lampo had gone out to haggle with one of the store owners that morning. Quite a surprise, considering how overprotective the other two were, but G had been strangely and slowly warming up to Ugetsu after the redhead had interrogated Tsuna on the boy's trustworthiness. Thus, Ugetsu was trusted to keep an eye on Tsuna as the others let him sleep in again.

How did that translate to why the older boy was playing an impromptu concert for an unconscious audience? Well . . .

That was apparently because Ugetsu had soon noticed that Tsuna was having a nightmare, and instead of waking him up like a normal person ("You still looked so tired, de gozaru," the taller boy explained with a worried tone), the boy decided to chase his nightmare away by playing his flute. Evidently it had worked splendidly, since Tsuna couldn't even remember having a nightmare in the first place . . .

"Thank you Asari-san," the blond murmured quietly. The nightmares he could have had weren't things he'd like to remember, after all. Sighing in relief, Tsuna leaned forward to get a better view of the delicate, wooden instrument Ugetsu held in his hands. Tsuna didn't know much about flutes, but even he could tell that Asari's flute was well-made. The intricate carvings on the small flute and the lovely sound it produced made it all too obvious.

"It is no problem, de gozaru," the older boy gave Tsuna a painfully familiar smile even as his slender fingers twitched. "Would . . . would you like me to continue?"

Tsuna felt his eyes light up and without any hesitation, he snuggled back into his blankets. Hey, if G and Lampo didn't want him to prance around and instead told him to stay a lazy puddle on his bed, who was he to refuse them?

"Of course!"

* * *

_**seventy-two weeks, six days** _

* * *

"Well, at least he's good for something," G muttered under his breath as a slow tune sunk into the room. Tsuna immediately slapped him softly in admonishment, though his eyes did not move away from the riveting figure on the opposite bed.

"G! Don't be like that!" The boy whispered quietly.

Lampo hummed with the flute sleepily as he yawned and even Tsuna felt his eyes grow heavy. Ugetsu had been strangely shy when Tsuna told the others of his musical gift, but both G and Lampo adored his musical gift, despite G's seemingly harsh words. Soon, Ugetsu was happily showing off his very extensive collection of lullabies, and well, Tsuna hadn't been sleeping so well in months.

With a content sigh as the soft tones of the flute washed over him, Tsuna closed his eyes. The soft chirping of the flute followed him into his dreams.

* * *

_**seventy-three weeks, two days** _

* * *

The streets of the marketplace was abnormally crowded that day, and it was more annoying than Tsuna had thought it would be. After all, taller people pushed them around unintentionally as they rushed to whatever destination they needed to be at, and it was all Tsuna could do to not get swallowed by the messy chaos.

" _Ah_!"

And for once, it seemed that Tsuna wasn't the only one with that problem. Whirling around at the sudden yelp, Tsuna watched with startled eyes as Ugetsu stumbled heavily because of a rushing man. Unbalanced, Ugetsu tripped over his feet and―

"Tch."

―and . . . G grabbed his arm to stabilize him?

"Huh?" Lampo mumbled slightly to his side, his tone coloured with more than just a bit of surprise. "Did that really just happen?"

Tsuna wasn't any better as he blinked in pure shock. G was the one who helped Ugetsu? Though G seemed to trust the second oldest in their group a little now, he didn't bother hiding his distaste for him. So, why would G . . . ?

"Gio, ask him if he's okay," the redhead muttered softly as he released his grip on Ugetsu. The boy strode in front of their little group again, though this time he gave the people around them an intimidating glare. Well, as intimidating of a glare as it could be for a child. It seemed to work despite G's age, however, and soon the people around them began giving them a large berth.

"Asari-san, are you alright?"

Obediently obeying their oldest, Tsuna watched with slight amusement as Ugetsu nodded dazedly in response. After all, he must have been surprised as well. Even someone blind could tell G's dislike for the musician, and it hadn't taken long for Tsuna to realize that the Rain was turning out to be more perceptive than most.

Just like . . .

.

.

.

_"Tsuna, calm down. It's just the Mafia game, alright?_

_. . ._

_"Don't worry so much, Tsuna! I'm really good with games. We'll be fine!"_

"I'm fine. Just a bit . . . surprised, de gozaru," Ugetsu replied as he stared at their resident redhead, not specifying whether it was his almost-fall that had surprised him, or if it had been G's actions. Tsuna hid a strained smile before shaking his head to rid himself of his wandering thoughts. Those thoughts . . . wouldn't really help him right now, so there was no point in thinking them . . .

"Gio?"

Tsuna's smile eased into a genuine one. "Ah, Ugetsu is fine, G."

"That wasn't . . . ah, never-mind."

?

Well, on the bright side, at least Tsuna now knew that no matter how tough G looked and behaved, he really was just a softy inside.

* * *

_**seventy-three weeks, five days** _

* * *

"!"

A small noise of pain attracted Tsuna's attention from his own project, and he quickly looked over. Ugetsu sat beside him, his dark eyes a bit shinier from a sheen gloss of un-shed tears.

"Are you alright?" Tsuna asked worriedly, relaxing only when Ugetsu nodded. Taking a look at the other boy's project, Tsuna sighed inaudibly as he eyed the tiny red flower blooming in white. He really should have given Ugetsu some black cloth to practice on. After all, both he and G remembered _Tsuna's_ first attempts at sewing . . .

"Ah, _gomen_ ," Ugetsu murmured softly as he too stared at the drop of blood. "I didn't mean to . . ."

"No, it's fine!" Tsuna hastily reassured the older boy before giving him a bright smile. "In fact, I should be thanking you for offering to help me!"

It was true. Both Lambo's and G's clothing had begun showing signs of wear and tear, so Tsuna squirreled them away for him to later mend. However, when Ugetsu saw him dutifully sewing one day, the other immediately and earnestly offered to help.

Of course, Ugetsu had no idea how to sew, but Tsuna was touched all the same by the offer. And the other boy was no less willing to learn so he could help, unlike G or Lampo who had no interest in such things.

"More importantly," Tsuna continued as he leaned over into Ugetsu's space to take a closer look at the other boy's abused fingers. "Are you alright?"

Ugetsu gave him a warm smile even as his bloodied fingers twitched slightly. "Of course I am, de gozaru. I'm almost done learning this stitch . . ."

"But your fingers . . ." Tsuna stared at the red skin and the way Ugetsu avoided using his left thumb. Biting his lip, the blond jumped off the bed and hurried to where he had kept the medicinal salve and some clean linen bandages. Coming back with his supplies, Tsuna plopped himself back down before demanding to wrap his friend's hands.

"I'm really fine," Ugetsu told him again, this time sounding slightly bemused. But he offered no protest as he let Tsuna's smaller hands grab his, Tsuna nimbly wrapping his long fingers.

. . . Then again, his obedience may be because of Tsuna's glare.

"Still, that doesn't mean you can't wrap your fingers up," Tsuna admonished lightly, even as he began spreading the salve onto Ugetsu's other hand.

"Ah . . . thank you, de gozaru . . ."

After all, Tsuna knew how important Ugetsu's fingers were to him. Because. Without them, how would Ugetsu play his beloved flute?

* * *

_**seventy-four weeks, one day** _

* * *

_Poke._

_._

_._

_Poke, poke._

.

.

.

Still half-asleep, Tsuna shifted away from the thing prodding his shoulder and snuggled deeper into the warm crook of his Storm's neck. Normally, in a situation like this Tsuna would be pretty concerned about if someone had gotten into their hotel room without his instincts or his Hyper Intuition going off. However, the familiar feel of dormant Rain flames cleared any worries. Whatever Takeshi wanted though, would have to wait till later. Tsuna's internal clock told him that it was nowhere near time to get up yet, so he deserved to get at least a few more hours of blissful sleep after all the paperwork he had to finish . . .

"Giotto-sama? Are you awake?"

". . ."

 _Wait_.

Giotto? _-sama_? Takeshi never addressed his superiors so formally before, so why the heck was he doing it now―

"Giotto-sama?"

. . .

 _A broken body-they were too late-all that was left was the broken body of his Rain_ ―

Ah. Of course. How could Tsuna have ever forgotten?

Yawning softly to force down the scream building in his throat, Tsuna blinked blearily before squinting at the blob in the darkness. A few seconds later, his eyesight cleared enough to make out an Ugetsu who was staring back, and it was only then did Tsuna's Intuition give him a small shove. Feeling suddenly more aware, the blond boy carefully extracted himself from G and slipped out of bed, before turning an inquiring look onto his companion.

"Thank you," Ugetsu gave him a grateful smile before pulling him to the open door. Walking outside and carefully shutting it, Tsuna turned to stare at the boy worriedly.

"Asari-san?" Tsuna asked, suddenly noticing Ugetsu's pale skin and the dark bruises beneath his eyes. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

The other boy smiled self-deprecatingly before closing his eyes. "Sorry for waking you up. I just wanted to talk, de gozaru."

"You didn't wake me up," Tsuna lied with a completely straight face before nodding and giving the boy a reassuring smile. "It's really fine."

It _was_ both fine and reasonable. After all, Tsuna was the only one in their little group who could speak Japanese, so it had been long established that Tsuna would be the one to deal with any of Ugetsu's concerns. Though . . . for Ugetsu to overcome his politeness and wake him up at what seemed to be midnight . . . something had to be wrong. Perhaps the Rain had a nightmare?

"What do you want to talk about?" The blond gently prodded as he sat down. Ugetsu sat beside him, close enough so that Tsuna could knock his knees against the Rain's. "We have all the time in the world."

"Thank you," Ugetsu said again as he smiled, his tense frame loosening slightly. "Could you tell me a story, de gozaru?"

Without blinking an eye at the childish-sounding request, Tsuna coaxed some of his flames to the surface before leaning against the trembling Rain. "Of course!"

(The blond wasn't surprised when, after Ugetsu finally fell asleep, he reopened the door to their room to find G leaning on the wall. The redhead snorted.

"Took you long enough," G grumbled before helping him carry Ugetsu back to the bed he shared with Lampo. "I was beginning to wonder if you were losing your touch."

"Hey! I don't see you helping me!" Tsuna pouted even as the flare of warmth in his chest grew.

. . . Oh, how he loved his family. )

* * *

_**seventy-four weeks, three days** _

* * *

"Ah, fresh air!" Tsuna sighed happily as he took a deep breath. It felt like forever since he was finally going outside once again. After all, he usually overslept in the mornings and by the time he woke up G and Lampo would have already left.

Eh? How does that affect Tsuna? Well, after Tsuna's last fainting spell, G had forbidden Tsuna from going out without him. Normally Tsuna would refuse to follow something like that, but G seriously looked so worried for him the younger couldn't help but agree . . .

"Are you sure we should have left the brat with Asari?" G asked, even as he dutifully followed him closer to the merchants selling goods. Tsuna eyed the various merchandise as he allowed his Intuition to take charge of their route. "Lampo doesn't know Japanese and the flute-freak hasn't picked up Italian yet."

Tsuna hummed before teasing his friend lightly. "I think it should be fine. Unlike you, Lampo gets along pretty well with Asari-san."

"Tch," G muttered even as he relaxed slightly. Tsuna hid a wry smile. With the help of careful questions, his friend had gotten better at manipulating Tsuna's Hyper Intuition into telling him whatever G needed to know. It just went to show how smart the redhead really was. Briefly, Tsuna wondered if Hayato also had the ability once but had just chosen not to use it . . .

"Oh!" Suddenly, Tsuna froze as his eyes landed on a very pretty flute. For some reason, he really wanted to buy it. Walking over, he examined the delicate wooden instrument as his Intuition hummed in pleasure. "This is really pretty . . ."

"You want to get it?" G asked as his eyes flitted over the price tag. With a sigh, he gave Tsuna a fond but exasperated look. "Gio, we came here so we could look a the weapon sale. We won't be able to buy any weapons if you buy this for the flute-freak. Besides, he already has a flute."

Tsuna pursed his lips as he stared at the object his Intuition was so keen on obtaining. It didn't surprise him that his friend immediately knew why he had such a sudden interest in the instrument and technically, G had brought up very convincing arguments to why he shouldn't buy the flute. However, Tsuna's Intuition just _itched_. . .

"Hmm," the blond began slowly. "I think it would be a good idea if we . . ."

.

.

.

* * *

_**seventy-four weeks, four days** _

* * *

"Okay," Tsuna started with a sigh as he stared down both G and Lampo. Ugetsu sat beside him, hazel eyes curious despite being a bit guarded. "Spill it. What's wrong, guys?"

The two of them had been exchanging uncomfortable glances for days now, and Tsuna was sick and tired of it. If they had something to say, they could say it to his face. And to Ugetsu's too, who G had taken to watching from time to time.

"We . . ." Uncharacteristically, G trailed off as his lips tightened into a thin line. Strangely, his face had also begun to turn red. Tsuna blinked in confusion and the slightest bit of worry. Was G really that angry about whatever was going on . . . ?

Lampo huffed and gave G an impatient pout. "Lampo and pinkhead wants to learn Japanese!"

"Eh?" Tsuna blinked in surprise as G's face turned even redder, though perhaps this time it _was_ in anger. Quickly translating Lampo's words so Ugetsu could understand, Tsuna watched happily as the Rain flushed in surprise and appreciation. "Of course I can teach you, G, Lampo!"

In fact, if Tsuna had known it would make Ugetsu so happy, he would have suggested it way sooner. Though, the blond guessed it must have meant more to the newest addition of their group when it was Lampo and _G_ who had wanted to learn . . .

"Thank you," Ugetsu whispered softly as the cloak of sadness surrounding him ever since they met dissipated just a bit. "Thank you so much."

Both G and Lampo grinned. This time, there was no need for a translation.

* * *

_**seventy-four weeks, seven days** _

* * *

_Tsuna made a distressed noise as he stared at the splintered pieces of wood in his hands. Of all things he had to fall on and break, why did it have to be_ this _one object?_

_"Tsuna?!"_

_Perhaps it was because of his long-festering guilt, or perhaps it was because Tsuna was way past Flame exhaustion by that point (which was truly a feat to behold), but his first instinct when hearing his Guardian's worried shout was to hide. Hide himself, and the damning evidence in his hands._

_Something wet dripped down his face._

_. . . Why did he let Reborn pick his Guardians? Why did he let Reborn pick his bright, bright Guardians?_

_"Tsuna!" Warm hands pulled him away from the collapsed desk he had hid behind as the owner of those hands frantically checked him for any wounds. Strangely enough, the worried hazel eyes didn't even glance at the broken bat soaked in blood . . ._

_"Tsuna, please, don't go to sleep just yet, okay? Ha ha . . . ha, we have to wait for senpai, okay? Just listen to my voice, Tsuna."_

_Tsuna, Tsuna, Tsuna . . ._

_Why was Takeshi not angry?_

_"Tsuna, please."_

_Why . . . ?_

_The brunet closed his eyes._

_._

_._

_._

Of all times Tsuna could get in trouble, it had to be this time. The one time in practically forever where Tsuna managed to get lost with Ugetsu, and voilà! Trouble came lurking.

". . . Hello," eyeing the wine glasses and knives in the hands of the grinning mobsters, Tsuna took a step back before pushing Ugetsu behind him despite their height difference. Like hell Tsuna was going to let the men touch his friend, especially when Ugetsu looked so afraid and pale. It may be one against six, but Tsuna should be fine without Ugetsu helping. Probably.

. . .

Man, G was never going to let him out of his sight, ever again.

"Brats, you look quite well-off," the man in the middle started as his eyes glinted gleefully. The other men surrounding him chuckled deeply as they slowly prowled forward. "Even if you two don't have money, the people who will come for you must, right?"

In less than a split second, the alien living in Tsuna's head calculated his odds of winning. They . . . were not that bad, actually, but lower than what Tsuna had originally hoped for. Clamping down on a sigh before it left his mouth, Tsuna chanced a look at Ugetsu.

"Giotto-sama . . ." The poor boy was staring at the talking man, even though he probably didn't understand a single word he said. G and Lampo were nowhere nearby but not near enough, so there was no hope for any backup. And according to his Intuition there _just wasn't any time left_ ―

Tsuna moved first.

 _Left!_ _More dangerous!_

"AHHHHH!" The man to the left who was holding a knife went down with a strangled screech as Tsuna yanked his dagger out of his heaving chest. Whirling around and ducking the wild swing of another, Tsuna slashed someone's knees before jerking back.

"AIIE! YOU BRAT!"

_Right!_

_Up!_

_Left!_

_Duck!_

There was no time to think. No time to hold back any fatal blows, no time to be scared. With the aid of his Intuition, Tsuna moved desperately, red spilling with every jerk and breath coming shorter and shorter until―

 _Behind!_ _Too late!_

"Giotto!"

_CRACK._

Heart leaping into his throat, Tsuna whipped around . . . just in time to see a blank-faced Ugetsu sink a thin knife into the ringleader's heart.

His beautiful, delicate wooden flute lay on the floor. Broken into two pieces.

* * *

_**seventy-five weeks, one day** _

* * *

_Ugetsu, Ugetsu, Ugetsu._

_Save Ugetsu, save Ugetsu._

_Ugetsu, Ugetsu, Ugetsu . . ._

Ugetsu's cloud of depression, one that had been slowly easing up, returned even stronger than before. Unsurprisingly, Tsuna was _distraught_.

If only he had moved a bit faster, if only he hadn't been so carefree to get them both lost . . .

_Save Ugetsu, save Ugetsu._

"Gio," a warm body sat beside him before a fluffy blanket was draped over his body. With an inaudible sigh, Tsuna tiredly closed his eyes as the boy beside him set a careful hand onto his left shoulder. "Gio, you know its not your fault, right?"

Such kind, pretty words . . . they were not meant for someone like Tsuna.

G sighed. "Giotto . . ."

_Ugetsu, Ugetsu, Ugetsu._

"You didn't see his face, G," Tsuna whispered softly as he stared at his pale hands. The blood that had stained them were gone now, but Tsuna couldn't understand why they were now clean. They should never be clean . . . ah, Tsuna felt so sick. "I don't know what destroyed him more; his first kill or his broken flute . . ."

_Save Ugetsu, save Ugetsu._

It might sound awful at first, because normally, how was a life comparable to a flute? But . . . Tsuna knew Ugetsu's flute had been as important to him as Takeshi's baseball was for Tsuna's Rain. Plus, that beautiful flute was probably one of Ugetsu's dear treasures from the past. Though the other boy had said nothing, Tsuna knew that something abnormal had probably occurred to him too and that his family was probably no more . . .

_Ugetsu, Ugetsu . . ._

Larger warm hands covered his own ( _stained, dirty_ ) and Tsuna looked up, a protest halfway out of his throat. Only G's glinting eyes stopped the words that were so eager to escape his mouth.

"Does it really matter, Giotto? Because both of those things already happened to him."

. . .

G was never one to sweeten his words. Even now, he was so honest . . .

"I know, but. I wanted you guys to be . . ." Tsuna looked away, the urge to cry stronger than before. Ugetsu was much younger than Takeshi had once been, but he already had his first kill. Tsuna already took away his precious flute. How was that not his fault?

_Why couldn't he keep them safe?_

_Save Ugetsu._

"So," G started off, subtly changing the subject after their brief awkward silence. "What are you waiting for? His hands may be stained, but honestly, I doubt we could have protected him forever. But his flute . . . you can still give him that."

Tsuna felt his eyes lit up in surprised delight. Right! He and G had bought that lovely flute from before, after Tsuna had proclaimed it to be his Intuition's request. It couldn't be a replacement for Ugetsu's treasure, Tsuna knew that, but maybe it was just enough to make him smile again . . .

Standing up with determination burning in his veins, Tsuna eased open the door to the room before stepping inside. The flute he had bought was still in his bag, which was why Ugetsu hadn't seen it before―

. . .

Wait.

_Save Ugetsu!_

Where was Ugetsu?

. . .

"Lampo!" G roared at the sleeping child as Tsuna felt the blood drain out of his face. He thought it had just been his nausea, but . . .

Had his Intuition been screaming at him the whole time?

( _And . . . he had ignored it?!_ )

.

.

.

_Ugetsu!_

* * *

"Giotto, I'm so sorry," Lampo looked stricken as the three of them ran out of the inn. "Lampo doesn't know how Lampo didn't notice him leave. Even if Lampo was sleeping, Lampo should have woken up . . ."

_Left!_

Tsuna took an abrupt turn as he looked back to give their youngest a strained smile. It hadn't been Lampo's fault; after all, he was drenched in the remnants of Rain flames . . .

To be honest, Tsuna was surprised the boy had managed to wake up in the first place. Even _Tsuna_ felt drowsy if he stood too close to the Lightening. Ugetsu's flames were _potent_ , but . . . when had he been an active Rain?

"No use in assigning blame now," Surprisingly, it was G who grunted that as he surveyed their surroundings. "Giotto, how bad is it?"

". . . I don't know," Tsuna smiled grimly as he took another turn. The ball of nausea that was his Intuition was a good sign of what was going to happen, even if Tsuna didn't have Takeshi's case to compare Ugetsu to.

_Please, please . . . let him be wrong._

"We're nearing . . . the ports?" G muttered under his breath as the sound of screeching seagulls filled the air. If it had been any other normal day, Tsuna would have enjoyed the slight taste of saltiness that saturated the air, but . . . "Is Ugetsu planning to sneak on a ship and leave?"

_!_

Tsuna's eyes widened in horror.

.

.

_"What are you doing?" The reproving tone was not unkind, far from it. But even then, Tsuna felt as though he had been slapped._

_"I . . . I . . ." Desperately, Tsuna pressed his hands to the slippery, gaping hole as he urged his Sun-converted Sky flames to just_ heal _. . ._

_"We're too late. He's already halfway down River Styx, Tsuna."_

_". . ."_

_Someone pulled him away from his friend_ ― _the corpse_ ― _his friend_ ― _aaahhhHHHHHH_ ― _"Stop it, you have no more flames left to spare."_

_No . . . please . . ._

_Don't leave me . . ._

_._

_._

"No!" Tsuna screamed as his Intuition _pinged_. Amplifying his speed with his meager flames, Tsuna ignored the call of his friends as he shot forward to the edge of the port. The chaotic yells of everyone surrounding him turned into an annoying buzz as Tsuna fell to his knees.

_Ugetsu . . . !_

The handkerchief Tsuna had given Ugetsu to embroider, still splotched with fading red, floated on top of a large ripple in the water.

.

.

.

_"We're too late."_

_._

_._

_. . . too late . . ._

_. . . too late . . ._

_._

No.

_No._

Tsuna didn't want to be late anymore.

( _Not anymore. Not when he could still drag them back from the reapers_.)

.

So . . .

.

"Giotto! What are you―"

.

That's why . . .

.

" _Wait_! Giotto―!"

.

Taking in a deep breath, Tsuna closed his eyes and―

.

― _jumped_.

.

_"Giotto!"_

* * *

.

.

.

The water was a wall of cold, crushing and desolate.

_"Tsuna . . ."_

His limbs felt heavy and weighed down. His chest hurt.

_"Don't you regret something?"_

Of course he did. He regretted not saving his Guardians. He regretted not saving his friends. He regretted not saving . . .

Oh!

_"Turn your regret into resolve, Tsuna."_

That's right. Tsuna didn't want to regret anymore. He had to save, he had to save―

_"Good. Now die for me, my dear, dame-student."_

Ugetsu!

_._

_._

_._

* * *

**_? ? ? ? ? ?_ **

* * *

The water below the ports began to steam and bubble . . .

* * *

**{chapter vii end}**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I'm not dead yet. This fic isn't either.
> 
> EDIT: I FORGOT TO MENTION IT HERE BUT I MENTIONED IT ON FF.NET BUT.  
> Go thank my darling friend Letti (who helped me piece together my notes and provided some fluff ideas), my hubby Mona, and all the awesome people at KHR slack! Without them this chapter would have been even later!

**Author's Note:**

> Please suggest additional tags!
> 
> (P.S. Formatting HTML is not fun OTL)


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